PRINCIPLE NO. 8 Reduce Parking Lot Imperviousness
Reduce the impervious cover of parking lots by providing compact car spaces, minimizing stall dimensions, incorporating efficient parking lanes, and using pervious materials in spillover parking areas.
Notes:
While reducing the number of parking spaces created is essential to reducing the amount of impervious cover, reducing the size of standard parking stall dimensions is another opportunity. Parking lots can also be reduced by minimizing standard parking dimensions in length and width, amending parking codes to require a fixed percentage for compact cars, and requiring designation of spillover parking areas using alternative paving materials. Some real challenges to these techniques are that there is an increasing trend toward larger sports utility vehicles and the performance of alternative pavements is not well documented. In addition, construction costs for alternative pavers are generally greater than conventional surfaces, but the reductions in stormwater management and storm drainage construction and maintenance may offset those costs.