Canter Group Planning & Design Blog

  This local landscape strip in the parking area exhibits several flaws.  The area is too narrow for the selected tree species (Live Oak) The topsoil within the planting area has been eroded away either by foot traffic or rainfall, or both There is no mulch around the tree to aid in moisture retention. It is possible that the soil is so compacted that the roots must surface to get the oxygen needed to survive. A path is not provided between areas separated by the landscape strip, making traversing an area like this, with exposed roots, hazardous to pedestrians.  A mitigating feature is that the planting strip is, placed at a 90 degree agnle with reference to the store entry so that pedestrians are not forced to cross the strip in order to reach the front entry. Some Suggested Design Considerations Ensure the species of tree is well suited at maturity for the space provided.  Know the characteristics of the development of the root system. At ...

Don't forget that once a passenger leaves a vehicle, the passenger has become a pedestrian.  This photograph is of a parking lot at a local restaurant.  The gutter of this style inlet is heavily sloped, and it's location can lead to serious injury to a pedestrian leaving a vehicle.

There are a lot of great designers out there offering workable ideas for stormwater treatment and control.  Parking lot bioswales (depressed areas to treat and/or control storomwater runoff are a great example of their thinking.  This is only one example:   With anything, once it's built, it requires maintenance to function properly.  The permitted facility shown below is rather new (around a year old) and it's intended function is already significantly impaired. Here' is what sometimes happens: Outlet structure blocked by debris and dead plant material. Landscaping/sod has died and sides are eroded.

Alas, traffic and parking planners!  Even your best plans are brought to nothing by the driver who does not want to be inconvenienced.  I even asked this driver, “You know this is one way in, right?”

The Tallahassee/Leon County Planning Department is creating a multi-modal district within the urban core of Tallahassee. While methods of regulating parking within the new district are not currently part of the Comprehensive Plan Amendment, measures for implementing parking standards that would enhance the TOD are being considered. Currently the City's Land Development Code provides minimum standards for the number of parking spaces associated with various land uses, with a 25% variance either way for redevelopment sites. Lately, discussion in the Planning Department, Growth Management Department and Planning community has been whether or not to set a maximum standard versus the common minimum standard for the number of parking spaces allowed / required. Even if such parking standards are implemented by the Land Development Code, the plan may take some time before the cost-benefit to owners and the general public can be analyzed, since the new rule would apply only to new or rede...