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Our church is in the process of remodeling and adding square footage. We’ve come up against a parking issue with the city because of the capacity of our sanctuary.

The sanctuary isn’t changing in our construction plans, but the capacity makes us short of parking spaces based on city requirements. If we could cut down seating capacity, all of our parking problems would be solved.

I’ve had some interesting conversations and correspondence with prominent manufacturers and providers of church seating. In the past, the standard was 18" or 19" per person seated in a pew. I’m told that standard has been increased, due to the “growing” of Americans.

Can you help me estimate the proper seating requirements for our facility and town? Anything you can offer on the subject will be greatly appreciated—we’re in a jam!

Judy Jordan
Facility Planning Team Member
Unity Church of the Valley
Vacaville, CA
jayjor1213@aol.com

James Elledge replies ...

You state that the sanctuary is not being changed, but it is now causing the issue of building capacity versus allocated parking space. Here is what I have been able to determine:

The City of Vacaville, CA uses the California Building Code Volumes I, II, and III, 2001 Edition, including Volume I Appendix Chapters 1, 4, 15, 33, and Division II and III of Appendix Chapter 31, published and copyrighted by the International Conference of Building Officials.

The documents identified in this Section are adopted in their entirety excepting additions, revisions, and omissions listed in Section 14.20.251.040 of this Chapter.

Regardless of building code, no one fits into 18" of space without some kind of physical separation. People compensate for this need for personal space through a phenomenon better known as “pew sprawl.” Sprawl will consume about one third of your code calculated seating positions.

Newer 21" theater seats are now being used to combat against pew sprawl. But until the building code is updated and adopted by your city, the larger seat size will be difficult to use.

Although I do not know the details of the remodeling and additional square footage, I can still make the following general observations and recommendations.

1. Are the pews in the sanctuary bolted to the floor? If not, can the floor plan be changed to show wider aisles with fewer pews to bring capacity down?

2. Since the sanctuary has not changed, have you had a building inspector meet with your facility planning team to go over what parts of the project have triggered the parking capacity problem?

3. Have you considered a remote parking arrangement? Perhaps you could set up a formal agreement with businesses close to your church that would allow you to use their parking during worship hours.

4. Could you break the pew sprawl habit? Define the seating on the pews by using a paper sheet, tape, or fabric to assign or define a larger width for each “seat” on the pew. The inspector might work with your church if you can show a visible area assigned as one seat in each row of pews. Depending on the length, you may have to use 21" or 22" as your desired width.

Thanks for your question

Jim Elledge

Elledge, facility/office services manager for Dallas, TX-based Summit Alliance Companies, is the recipient of the Distinguished Author Award from the International Facility Management Association (IFMA), is an IFMA Fellow, and is a member of TFM’s Editorial Advisory Board. All questions have been submitted via the “FM Expert Advice” portion of the magazine’s Web site.

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