17.70.180 Showers, lockers, and changing rooms.
A. Purpose. The purpose of this section is to encourage bicycling, transit use, walking, carpooling, and other modes of transportation (other than by motor vehicle) that can move the city toward achieving modal split goals in the General Plan Circulation Element.
B. Application. New nonresidential developments of ten thousand square feet or larger and nonresidential buildings that expand the floor area by ten percent or more and exceed ten thousand square feet shall provide shower and clothes locker facilities in compliance with the standards of this section.
C. Standards.
1. Shower and Dressing Areas. A minimum of one shower facility shall be provided in new nonresidential developments with a gross floor area between ten thousand and twenty-four thousand nine hundred ninety-nine square feet, two showers in projects between twenty-five thousand square feet and one hundred twenty-four thousand nine hundred ninety-nine square feet, and four showers for any project over one hundred twenty-five thousand square feet. Dressing areas and lockers shall be provided in close proximity to shower facilities.
2. Floor Area Exemption. Floor area dedicated to showers, dressing areas, and clothes lockers shall not be included in the floor area for calculating the parking requirement or for total floor area for the project.
3. Tenant Improvements. Required showers, lockers, and changing areas shall not be removed during tenant improvements or through subsequent remodeling without the approval of the director.
D. Alternative Compliance. Alternative compliance, as established in this subsection, may be applied to all land use classifications.
1. Upon written request by the applicant, the director may approve alternative compliance from the provisions of this section through an approved director’s action, which may include, but is not limited to, a reduction or deviation in the number, type, or location of the required bicycle parking, and may include a waiver of the requirement.
2. Considerations used in the determination may include, but are not limited to:
a. Physical site planning constraints;
b. Projects that cannot be classified into the provided land use categories;
c. Provision of enhanced shower facilities within the development or use;
d. Inclusion of the site within a larger development for which adequate showers, dressing areas, and clothes lockers are already provided;
e. Projects that exhibit unusual operational characteristics associated with a particular use;
f. Unforeseen circumstances or individual land use changes. (Ord. 1650 § 3 (Exh. B), 2018)