CRANBERRY TWP — Township supervisors and staff are proposing amendments to a zoning ordinance that will revise parking requirements for residential developers.

Details on the updates were presented by Ron Henshaw, the township’s planning and development services director, at a public hearing Thursday, Jan. 20.

The first main component being tweaked would require developers to include ample overflow parking and pocket parking in each phase of a development.

The township refers to pocket parking as an area of pavement directly connected to a street or road within a residential neighborhood that is for the parking of vehicles.

Developers will be required to provide the location and number of spaces during each building phase.

“Previously, a developer could actually wait until the last phase of the development, and ones where it took a long time to get there, it really presented a problem,” Henshaw said during the hearing. “They would wait till the last phases, years would go by, and we wouldn’t have this overflow parking.”

According to the proposed ordinance amendment, any residential housing development unit that requires overflow parking must be located within the same phase of development and within 300 feet of the residential unit.

Additionally, the amendment would require developers to paint lines for street parking to delineate the spaces.

That part of the amendment is projected to clarify any confusion for residents on where they can safely park.

“Now, those spaces have to be painted in that season of when they put the pavement down,” Henshaw added.

Another change revolves around driveway length. The township will now require that all driveways for residential units will need to be equal to or greater than 18 feet in length.

That length will most commonly be determined by measuring the edge of the garage to the edge of the sidewalk located closest to the home.

“We think we’ve got reasonable solutions that are going to make a difference here and in a very positive way,” Henshaw said during his presentation.

Township supervisors will consider the adoption of the amendments at Thursday’s meeting.