10.3 Off-street parking (on and off plot)

On street parking should provide most of the parking required in a development.

However, it may be necessary or desirable to introduce off street parking, either on or off plot, to provide additional spaces, and all off street parking, including garages, must contribute to parking figures.

SCC or the local district or borough council will not adopt off street parking areas and a future maintenance strategy for these spaces must be provided by developers.

Parking typologies

Appropriate typologies include:

Curtilage parking:

• Vehicles must not obstruct the pavement.
• Curtilage parking must be accommodated to the side of the house (either in a garage, car port or on hardstanding, preferably permeable). This is suitable for detached, semi-detached and end of terraced homes.
• Front curtilage parking must be avoided.
• Where two spaces are required per home, these should be positioned end to end (see figure 10-4 below) to ensure a consistent building line.

Figure 10-4: To avoid the creation of a car dominated streetscape curtilage parking should be positioned to the side of homes (in garages / hardstanding and car ports), not the front (Credit – Create Streets)

Peripheral parking (car barns and parking courts to the edge of developments).

• Off-street communal parking located at the periphery of a development is appropriate for 2nd and 3rd parking spaces and apartment spaces and encourages people to use sustainable forms of transport first.
• Peripheral parking is a more efficient use of land, leads to lower car use and allows more walkable street patterns and widths to be used in a development.
• Parking courts should be well landscaped and use permeable surfaces. It is also a good place for car clubs and EV charging.

Courtyard cluster parking.

• This could have a formal or informal character.
• Courtyards should not exceed 12 spaces and must not be situated to the rear of homes.
• Parallel, echelon and perpendicular spaces could all be used and must be integrated with landscaping and street trees.
• Surface treatment within courtyards should be permeable and asphalt should be avoided.

Figure 10-5a: An example of well landscaped courtyard parking, Valençay, France (Credit – Create Streets)

Figure 10-5b: Courtyard parking, Poundbury, Dorset (Credit - Andy Cameron)

Garages / car ports.

• These must be well designed and be in line with or set back from the building line.
• Garages should be located to the side of homes and could be designed as integral or detached.
• Detached garages could occasionally be positioned to the rear of homes but must not be positioned to the front.
• Further guidance on garages is provided below.

Coach house.

• These are homes or ancillary living / workshop spaces with parking spaces below. They could be terraced or detached and must only be used within mews streets to help create continuous frontages.
• Under croft, multi-storey or underground parking. Often appropriate in higher density development or constrained urban locations and brownfield in-fill sites.
• Multi-storey parking should be enclosed with built form to maintain active frontage on streets and entrances from the street must not affect the pedestrian experience. These should be closed to the street.
• Open ground floor parking (with no gate) beneath buildings should be in well overlooked locations.

Figure 10-6: Podium, multi-storey or underground parking could be appropriate in urban sites or high-density areas. (Credit – NMDC)

Mews courts and streets:

• These must be used in lieu of rear courtyard and rear curtilage parking.
• Mews parking should be used sparingly but may be appropriate on larger schemes in conjunction with terraced typologies. a mix of parallel, echelon and perpendicular spaces could all be incorporated into the design.

Mews parking must be designed to function as a place not a left behind expanse of asphalt by ensuring that:

• There are buildings fronting onto areas of parking.
• They can be landscaped with street trees and greenery to soften the streetscape.
• Visible rear boundaries are brick or stone to create a sense of enclosure, they should not be fenced.
• Asphalt must not be used, and permeable surface materials are preferred.

Figure 10-7: Mews court parking, Poundbury, Dorset. (Credit – Create Streets)