Lehi City News
City Council changes parking code for specialty preschools
Nichole Coombs | Lehi Free Press
The Lehi City Council voted unanimously to add a new parking code for preschools that provide integrated therapeutic services.
The changes come after residents in the Foxhunt neighborhood, at the southeast corner of 3200 North 1200 West in Lehi, complained that employees of a special-needs preschool in a nearby commercial area used neighborhood streets for overflow parking.
Kyrk Wright, who lives in the neighborhood, told the city council in June that he was happy to see new businesses but worried that bumper-to-bumper parking on his street posed a hazard.
“I’ve lived here for 16 years,” said Wright. “Most of the houses in the area have young kids or teenagers. The special needs preschool has many employees. Those employees don’t have anywhere to park, so they fill our streets. Between 30-40 cars per day.”
City code requires preschools to have one parking stall per 300 feet of gross floor area. Fabian House, the preschool near the Foxhunt neighborhood, meets this requirement, but it’s the type of preschool that is causing parking issues.
Fabian House offers programs for neurotypical children and children on the spectrum from kindergarten through fifth grade, including applied behavior analysis therapy for children with autism. Fabian House employs one caregiver for every three to four children. This influx of staff is what’s causing the parking issues.
To make sure this situation doesn’t occur again, the Lehi City Council passed a code that specifies preschools with integrated therapeutic services must now provide one parking stall per employee on the largest shift of the day, plus five visitor spaces, or as otherwise approved by the planning commission, based on a parking demand study.
The new code affects new businesses in Lehi but not those already operating in the city.
