At the September 20, 2000 Planning Commission meeting, the Planning Commission requested information about the parking plan required by Major Conditional Use Permit No. 86-535 when membership of the health/pool/tennis club at the Claremont Resort and Spa (the Claremont) exceeds 900. Condition 2 of CUP 86-535 states that:

In response to this condition, information from the Claremont was provided to the Commission in November 2000, February 2001 and May 2001. At the Planning Commission meeting of May 16, 2001, the Commission asked the Claremont to provide the following information:

• Total number of employees, guests and public visitors.
• Total number of club and spa members, both existing and the planned cap.
• Actual parking demand for the facility, including employees, guests, club and spa members and the public, compared to parking supply. (The demand should look at actual usage, as well as membership.)
• Information about the peak summer parking demand, available supply and measures to accommodate peak demand.
• Identify special measures to accommodate and manage parking demand as the club and spa membership grows.
• Information about whether employee parking demand is currently being met on-site and whether there are formal policies directing employees where to park, both on and off-site.

The Claremont responded to the request from the Commission for the above information by submitting the attached report titled Parking Adequacy Analysis for the Health Club at the Claremont Resort and Spa dated October, 2001. Throughout this report, the health/pool/tennis club will be referred to as the health club.

The Parking Adequacy Analysis provides parking demand data for all facilities at the Claremont including parking demand for employees, hotel guests, wedding and conference quests, health club members and the general public. The report compares this demand to the available parking supply. This data was gathered by the consulting firm of International Parking Design, Inc. by counting the actual usage of the parking lot during times of peak usage in September, 2001. It

was determined that the hotel facilities and the health club are at peak occupancy in September on Wednesdays at 1:00pm when the conference/banquet rooms are typically in full use by business/corporate clients and on Saturdays at 1:00p.m. when the conference/banquet rooms are typically in full use with weddings/social events and the pools and tennis facilities of the health club are at summer peak occupancy. Refer to Tables 1, 2 and 3 of the report for the data on parking supply and demand.

These tables show that there are 595 parking spaces at the Claremont, including valet spaces and employee parking lots, and excluding all public parking spaces on the public streets adjacent to or in the general area of the hotel. At the times of peak usage, the number of on-site parking spaces occupied varied from 413 to 467, resulting in 128-182 on-site parking spaces being unoccupied /vacant. Of the occupied spaces, 62 to 80 spaces were occupied by members of the health club, based on data from the parking entry gates. This illustrates that at times of peak usage, 6% of the total membership of the health club are parking in the on-site parking lots.

Based on the number of parking spaces occupied by members of the health club at times of peak usage the report uses this data to determine that existing parking supply is adequate for the current club membership of 1,333. The Parking Adequacy Analysis also identifies in Table 4 that when the membership of the club reaches 2,000, a new plan for managing parking for any additional club memberships will be needed based on the current 595 parking spaces at 85% of capacity.

Table 5 identifies that the parking section of the Oakland Planning Code requires 589 spaces for the various types of uses and facilities located at the Claremont. As stated previously in this report, 595 parking spaces currently exist on-site, including valet spaces which are available daily.

In response to the Commission’s request for information on the availability of employee parking, the Claremont undertook a survey of their employees to determine how employees arrive at work and of those who drive, to determine where they park. The data from this survey is summarized on pages 7-9 of the report and can be summarized as follows:

• At times of peak usage, 223-295 total employees are working on-site; this total does not distinguished between the hotel and the health club employees.
• Of those, 189 to 251 employees drive to work.
• Of that number, 159 to 179 employees park within the grounds of the hotel in the 595 parking spaces located on-site, which includes two employee parking lots. The two employee parking lots are consistently at capacity.
• Forty-nine to 55 employees park regularly park along Claremont Avenue behind the Resort and 16 to 18 park along other public streets near the Resort.

As stated on page 9 in the "Claremont Resort Associate (employee) Parking Policy" employees are directed to park in one of the two employee parking lots located on-site. If those parking lots are full, employees are directed to check the overflow parking behind the hotel along Claremont Avenue. If it is full, along with the two employee parking lots, employees are allowed to park within the hotel parking lots and to use the valet parking. The Claremont has stated to City staff that employees are not charged a fee to park in any of these locations including the on-site parking lots and the valet parking.

The Planning Commission requested information from staff regarding the safety of angle parking that occurs on the shoulder of Claremont Avenue at the rear of the hotel. The shoulder along this part of Claremont Avenue is often used as angle parking by employees of the Claremont, by people attending football games to UC-Berkeley on fall weekends, and occasionally by other drivers in the area looking for parking. The Traffic Engineering Division of the City’s Public Works Agency reviewed this issue in October 2001, as they had also done in December 1999. In 1999, Traffic Engineering determined from accident records that there was not a problem associated with vehicles backing onto Claremont Avenue from angled parking on the shoulder. They also determined that there is adequate sight distance in the area. However, because of the curved alignment of the roadway, the City agreed to install traffic signs to warn drivers of backing vehicles. The signs were installed on 2-7-2000.

• The accident history does not indicate a problematic condition related to the angle parking on Claremont Avenue in the area under discussion at the rear of the Claremont Hotel. There has been one accident reported in five years.
• There have been no accidents related to the angle parking since the installation of warning signs.
• The pavement markings adequately separate northbound traffic and southbound traffic. They also adequately separate parked vehicles from the travel way. It is a parking violation to park over a shoulder stripe.

The Claremont has presented information and analysis to show that the amount of off-street parking currently available at the hotel is adequate to accommodate membership of the health club ranging from 900 members to up to 2,000 members. This is based on the availability of 595 parking spaces on-site which includes 159 valet spaces and 84 parking spaces that are reserved exclusively for employees. It is imperative to this parking management plan that the valet parking remains available daily, that the employee parking lots remain available for employee parking and that the employee parking policy continues to allow employees to park anywhere on site without a parking fee.

Additionally, it is evident from the data that the on-site employee parking lots are at capacity. Therefore, any additional employees that may result from increased membership of the health club over 900 memberships originally approved with CUP 86-535 need to be accommodated on-site to reduce the impact of increased club employees on adjacent residential areas.

While the data submitted indicates that the existing parking could accommodate an increase up to 2,000 club memberships, staff is concerned about whether the existing parking can actually accommodate an increase of that size and still function adequately. Staff believes that the use of the health club could fluctuate up to 30% based on seasonal and other peak conditions. In addition, the on-site parking needs to accommodate any new club employees resulting from increased membership over 900. Finally, a circulation factor of 10-15% needs to be factored in because a vacancy factor is needed in this type of commercial/high turnover parking, especially with valet parking.

Therefore, the Planning Director believes that the information submitted by the Claremont within the document Parking Adequacy Analysis for the Health Club at the Claremont Resort and Spa dated October, 2001, is an acceptable plan for handling the additional parking demand for health club memberships over 900 based on the following conditions and requirements:

• Designate additional on-site employee parking spaces in an amount equivalent to the new employees resulting from increased membership over 900.

• Once the membership of the health club reaches 1,600, the Claremont is required to review the parking supply and demand to see if the Parking Adequacy Analysis for the Health Club at the Claremont Resort and Spa dated October, 2001 is still adequate to meet the demand for parking for club memberships. Such supply and demand data and analysis shall be submitted to the Planning Director for approval, before increasing memberships over 1,600. This will allow for up-to-date parking analysis that responds to seasonal and future variations, and to other factors that affect peak demand. The Planning Director has the authority to request review of such future report by the Planning Commission if any issues can not be successfully resolved.

• If a future parking plan recommends the construction of additional parking facilities then design review and possibly amending the Conditional Use Permit would be required.

• Staff further recommends that the parking management plan be amended to require the Claremont Employee Parking Policy to direct employees not to park in any adjacent residential neighborhoods and to clarify that on-site parking is free to employees during their work-shift.

If the Planning Commission has serious concerns with the above recommendations or the adequacy of the data submitted, then the majority of the Commission must find that the Claremont is not in compliance with Condition 2 of CUP 86-535 and schedule reconsideration of the conditional use permit for a public hearing.

Respectfully submitted:

LESLIE GOULD

Director of Planning and Zoning

Prepared by:

Patricia McGowan

Planner IV, Major Projects Unit

Attachments

1. Parking Adequacy Analysis for the Health Club at the Claremont Resort and Spa dated October, 2001
2. Memo from Traffic Engineering Division regarding angle parking on Claremont Avenue
   

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