Reduced Parking Requirements for Therapy Practices

Motion

Given a) the shortage of medical office space in Los Angeles, resulting in rents 30% higher than comparable commercial office space; b) that therapists, forced to choose between medical office space (zoned with reduced parking requirements) and non-medical space (which requires five parking spaces per 1,000 sq ft), often choose medical and thus further drive up demand; and c) that therapists do not require the specialty plumbing and facilities of other medical specialties; the __________NC/CC recommends that for psychotherapy and marriage and family therapist (MFT) practices which service single patients per session during normal business hours (9am to 5pm), the City should reduce the requirement from five (5) parking spaces per 1,000 sq ft of non-medical office space to three (3) parking spaces.