Amendments approved after 60-day moratorium 

 

TRYON—Following a 60-day moratorium on parking lots in residential districts, the Town of Tryon approved amendments to its zoning ordinance.  

During a recent meeting, Tryon Town Council approved amendments to Article 4 (General Use Zoning Districts) section 4.8 (Off-Street Parking and Loading Requirements) of its zoning ordinance.  

The original discussion occurred earlier this year and pertained to land at the former Melrose Inn, which burned down last September.  

Tryon held a public hearing on the moratorium and approved the 60-day moratorium in April.  

Tryon Planner Tim Daniels said at the time that there have been inquiries in the Melrose Inn property, but no permits or applications have been submitted to the town.  

During the moratorium, town officials drafted amendments to the ordinance and the amendments were also approved by the Tryon Board of Adjustments on April 23.  

The town’s resolution regarding the amendments includes that the town has determined there exists lots within areas of the town within the residentially-zoned districts which might prove attractive to adjacent or nearby non-residential uses for parking areas.  

“The board of commissioners recognizes the need to protect the integrity of long-established residential districts within the Town of Tryon,” states the town’s resolution.  

The new ordinance includes new verbiage for combined and shared parking and for satellite parking.  

The new wording for combined and shared parking states the required parking space or any portion thereof for any number of separate uses each of which is within 300 feet of the designated parking area may be combined in one lot, but the required parking space for any one use many not be assigned to another use at the seam time.  

Two or more uses may share the same parking spaces provided the developer(s) can demonstrate that the uses will not overlap in hours of operation or in demand for the shared spaces. Any sharing of required parking spaces between uses located on different parcels shall be guaranteed by a written agreement between the owner of the parking area and the owner of any use located on a different parcel and served by the parking area, the ordinance now states.  

On satellite parking, if the required automobile parking spaces cannot reasonably be provided on the same lot on which the principal use is conducted, such spaces may be provided on other off-street property provided such property lies within 100 feet of the main entrance to such principal use. Also, the zoning designation of the lot proposed as satellite parking must be identical to the zoning designation of the lot to be served by the satellite parking.  

“In no case shall satellite parking to serve non-residential uses be allowed within any residentially zoned district,” the new ordinance states.