Among the actions taken by the Stevens Point Common Council at their December 16 meeting, approval was given to a revision of the zoning ordinance that specifies parking standards. This ordinance lays out the requirements for providing parking when new developments are built.

Quality bike racks like these might start appearing in Stevens Point (Photo credit: City of Denver, CO)

Most of the 22-page document is about motor vehicle parking. But one page is devoted to bicycle parking. Now that this ordinance has been adopted, all new developments built within the city of Stevens Point must adhere to these bike parking requirements.

These new bicycle parking requirements are based on an 8-page document entitled Bicycle Parking Guidelines published by the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP). This 2002 version can be downloaded for free from the APBP website. (A second edition, expanded to 45 pages, was published in 2010 and is available from the APBP website for a fee.)

Highlights of Stevens Point’s new bike parking requirements include the following:

• Requirement for high-quality bike racks (such as inverted ‘U’ racks), with specifications that rule out wheel-bender racks (such as bar racks),
• Minimum spacings between racks and separations from walls,
• Minimums for number of bike parking spaces,
• 120 foot maximum distance between the bike parking area and the main entrance.

New construction of apartment, mixed-use, and non-residential development must now adhere to these requirements.

Example of a poor quality bar rack at Stevens Point city hall: inadequate bicycle support, u-lock cannot lock frame, high potential for bending front wheel, too far from main entrance

Anyone who bicycles around Stevens Point has undoubtedly discovered the lack of quality bike parking throughout our city. This new ordinance only applies to new construction, not existing buildings, so the passage of these new rules is not going to have an immediate impact. Nevertheless, having these new requirements is an important step in making our city more bicycle friendly. Over time, the effect of these new requirements will gradually create better bicycle parking as opportunities allow.

When I looked at the City of Stevens Point website today, I did not see that the online version of the city’s zoning ordinances are updated to reflect these new bicycle parking requirements. If you want to see the ordinance passed by the Stevens Point Common Council, you can look at the agenda packet for the December 16 meeting on the city’s website. The language on bicycle parking is on page 58 of the packet. Relative to the zoning ordinance contained in the packet (which itself is section 23.01(14) of the Stevens Point ordinance on zoning), it is subsection (f) on page 14 of the ordinance.

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