Thanks to Cardinal Corner for their support.
West St. Paul is considering an ordinance to require bike racks at new developments. It will function much like parking minimums for cars, requiring developers to provide adequate parking for bikes.
Why: It’s a priority in the recently passed Bike & Pedestrian Plan, creates better infrastructure to encourage biking, and promotes safety. Plus, residents have recently pushed for it at City Council meetings.
- “The uncertainty of the presence of bike racks has made me choose to drive over bike many times,” said Emily Vergin, a member of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee. “This city has so much within it’s borders that is an easy ride so long as I have a place to ‘park’ my bike.”
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Meetings: The proposed ordinance will first come before Planning Commission on Tuesday, August 15 for a public hearing. Then it will go to City Council.
Bike Rack Ordinance Details
- Design: The ordinance defines how many bikes can fit on a rack, mandates that racks are anchored to the ground, and can properly support a bike (which will minimize some of the flimsy bike racks we’ve seen).
- Number: The ordinance mandates a number of bike parking spaces based on the size of the parking lot, with a minimum of four for lots with up to 150 parking spaces for cars and a minimum of 10 for lots with more than 150 spots for cars.
- Location: The ordinance also requires a convenient location, “at least equally convenient as the most convenient non-disabled motor vehicle parking,” and not obstructing sidewalks.
- Application: As with any new ordinance, it only applies to new construction or existing lots that are being reconstructed. It will not force existing to businesses to add bike racks (unless they rebuild their parking lot).
Benefits of biking: “Encouraging visits from folks traveling by bike will have long lasting positive effects like reduction of greenhouse gases, encourage healthier citizens through moving under their own power, and it can be infectious to see a person or group biking down the trail,” said Vergin. “It’s the best kind of bandwagon to jump on and remind people that it exists.”
Bike Rack History
Existing bike racks: Many of the bike racks we already have in the city are thanks to the Planning Commission that either suggested them or added them as required conditions to variance requests. That’s how the bike rack at city hall came to be.
Better plan: But adding requirements that late in the process means that bike racks were often tacked on last minute, with results like the Dunkin’ bike rack in the back corner of their drive thru. Requiring bike racks through ordinance will give developers a heads up and mean bike racks are part of the planning from the beginning.
“It just makes sense to let developers know up front of this requirement in our code and to be consistent,” said Morgan Kavanaugh, former chair of the Planning Commission. “I would like to see continued changes to our code around eliminating parking minimums and requiring pedestrian safety requirements on all new development, but a bike rack requirement is a good start to continue to align our code with our plans.”
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