The project is located in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, just outside of Gatlinburg, Tennessee. As the Park has no zoning requirements, we propose using the requirements of the adjacent municipality--the City of Gatlinburg Zoning Ordinance-- to determine the "minimum local zoning requirements." Per Paragraph 402.11.2 of the Ordinance, one space is required for each 400 square feet of floor space. At approximately 16,600 gross square feet, the minimum parking requirement for this project would be 42 spaces. Therefore, we propose to provide 42 or less parking spaces to comply with the parking capacity component of the credit. Is it acceptable, in the case of no local zoning requirements, to use the nearest municipality\'s requirements to determine the minimum required parking?
It would not be appropriate to utilize municipal parking requirements in a national park setting, since parking needs may differ significantly between these two contexts. In the absence of zoning parking requirements, the project team may demonstrate compliance as described in SSc4.4 CIR ruling dated 4/28/03; this approach utilizes the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) "Parking Generation" study (at www.ite.org) from 2003 as the benchmark standard, and the credit can be earned by providing 25% less parking spaces than the applicable statistic for the building\'s function(s). Please note that the project team also must demonstrate that the credit\'s requirement for preferred carpooling spaces has been met as well. Applicable Internationally.