PORTSMOUTH — The City Council is slated to vote on a third and final reading of a proposed ordinance amendment to change off-street parking requirements in the city's tourist driven downtown overlay district.

City Planning Director Juliet Walker has acknowledged the ordinance change will impact the proposed redevelopment of the McIntyre Federal Building site. But she can't say if it would reduce the parking requirements because the city's private development partner Redgate/Kane has not submitted its formal application yet.

“I don't know the size of the units. All I know is the number that's been presented as a potential number of units,” Walker said at a recent City Council meeting.

The council voted 8-1 to pass second reading and schedule the final reading at its Feb. 4 meeting. City Councilor Rick Becksted, who voted not to pass second reading, said he is “very concerned” the council is scheduled to vote for the final time on the ordinance when it doesn't know how it will impact the McIntyre redevelopment.

“We should not be doing this, especially with a project like this that is so important to everyone,” Becksted said Wednesday. “It's a great concern of mine.”

Redgate/Kane's proposal includes using the McIntyre for office space and building a 4½-story mixed-use building and two 3½-story mixed-use buildings on the property. The ground floors of the mixed-use buildings would be used for commercial and retail with 77 high-end apartments above.

Becksted has repeatedly said the developer's plan for only 77 spaces at the 2.1-acre site will create “huge parking problems” in the area. Asked if he was surprised the rest of the council voted to pass second reading, he said, “I don't think some of these people understand the situation and the parking problems that are going to occur.”

Under the current zoning, developers are required to provide 1.3 parking spots per dwelling unit in the downtown overlay district, Walker said. The city and Redgate/Kane's redevelopment project as proposed would need 96 off-street parking spots to meet the city's current zoning, she said.

The ordinance amendment calls for changing the off-street parking requirements in the overlay district to how it's determined in the rest of the city, by unit size, Walker said. Units of more than 750 square feet would require 1.3 spaces per unit, units between 500 to 750 square feet would require one space per unit and units less than 500 square feet would require 0.5 parking spaces per unit if the amendment is passed, she said.

A developer wishing to build a hotel in the overlay district is required to provide .75 spaces per guest room plus one space per 25 square feet of conference or banquet faculties, Walker told the council. But for other non-residential uses, like office space, there are no parking requirements, she said.

Becksted believes the developers are going to have to rely on the city's new Foundry Place Garage to deal with parking demands at the Daniel Street site. The city's second municipal parking garage was built off Deer Street, roughly a half mile from the McIntyre property.

“We did not build and spend $27 million on the new garage to address development projects of tomorrow, we built it to address the parking shortages we sometimes face today,” Becksted said.

The council also voted 8-1 to pass second reading of another zoning amendment that would allow the Planning Board to vote on conditional-use permits seeking less parking than required in the city's downtown overlay district, Walker said. Becksted voted against passing second reading.

Right now, developers that want relief from parking requirements in the downtown overlay district must seek a variance from the Zoning Board of Adjustment, Walker said.

The Planning Department had sought to make the change to the ordinance in 2017, but because of an “administrative error” the Planning Board cannot grant a CUP related to off-street parking in the overlay district, Walker said.

City Manager John Bohenko on Wednesday declined to comment on the two proposed ordinance amendments, but in his memo to the City Council before it voted on second reading, he recommended it pass both ordinance amendments.

The city is working to acquire the McIntyre property for free from the General Services Administration through the Historic Monument Program.