As a commercial business, you need a parking lot for a few reasons. Not only does a parking lot give your employees, customers, and visitors a place to comfortably park their vehicles, it adds an element of professionalism to your building as well. However, most parking lots require a permit to build.
If you’re a small business without much traffic, even a small, unstabilized gravel lot requires a permit to excavate and install. Chances are you need something more permanent for your employees and visitors to park on if you get moderate or frequent traffic. There are, however, a couple of ways you can implement a professional, durable parking lot without having to obtain a permit of any kind.
If you are looking to lay a semi-permanent or permanent parking lot for your commercial business, here’s how you can circumvent almost all of the common requirements without sacrificing anything in the way of durability, functionality, or aesthetic appeal.
The Parking Lot Building Process
Due to the impermeable nature of both concrete and asphalt, cities require special permits before you can build a parking lot made from either of these materials.
If you hire a contractor to pave your parking lot, as most business owners do, that company needs to submit paving plans for review and approval prior to actually beginning the installation process.
These permits and code restrictions protections aren’t without good reason. They help protect the community from overdevelopment and flooding. However, for the average business owner looking to quickly install a parking lot, they can be quite a hassle.
Every construction company must apply and wait for their applications to be approved before beginning work on your parking lot. This can eat up valuable time and affect your bottom line.
How to Circumvent the Need for Parking Lot Permits
With almost any type of material you want to use for your parking lot, some kind of permit is going to be required before you can start building it. This includes concrete, asphalt and gravel-only. But, what if there was a way to create a permanent lot with durable, high-quality materials without having to apply for any type of permits, no matter your location? Thankfully, on many sites there is.
If you have existing grass, it can be stabilized with a unique paving product to park on without disturbing the natural hydrology of the site. When the hydrology is changed — when the site becomes more impervious — that is when the city requires added stormwater detention and drainage. But if you can create a parking lot without changing the site’s hydrology, then you can pave without permitting. How is this possible, you might ask? Well, there’s a simple workaround you can use, provided you have the right products and the right site conditions.
As it stands, there are only two ways to pave without a permit for commercial purposes. You can either use the TRUEGRID ROOT system to stabilize existing grass on your property or you can use TRUEGRID PRO PLUS to upgrade an already existing gravel lot.
If there is excavation involved in your parking lot installation process, you’ll need a permit in most cases. However, if you are simply adding plastic pavers to existing grass, or adding plastic pavers to stabilize an already existing gravel lot, this can be done without any additional permits required. Permeable paving technology has evolved to the point where you can park commercial traffic on grass or stabilized gravel. Assuming you’re working with an unstabilized gravel lot that is already in place, or an undisturbed grass lot, the installation process is very simple.
Installing the TRUEGRID ROOT System
For example, TRUEGRID ROOT pavers can be added to any plot of land with grass on it. For a grass lot, the TRUEGRID ROOT system uses interlocking pavers that are quickly and easily laid over the level surface of grass. The grass is mowed short, then the area should be thoroughly wet. The pavers are then laid on the grass and pressed into the surface with a heavy or vibrating roller or vehicle. The pavers are then compacted into the ground by driving over them and the parking lot is complete.
The system allows grass to grow through the paver cells and stabilize the area for vehicle traffic without changing the hydrology, drainage or even the natural grass appearance of the site.
Installing TRUEGRID PRO PLUS Pavers
An existing gravel lot consisting of loose gravel is a major headache for a business owner. Ruts, mud and dust come with gravel-only lots. There is a one-time solution that doesn’t need permitting as no impervious cover is being added.
The TRUEGRID PRO PLUS pavers would simply be installed over the top of the loose gravel after it has been compacted and leveled, with more gravel filled in the cells of the pavers. This provides a stabilized gravel lot that will not compact further and become impervious. Again, in this application, the hydrology of the site has not been changed and no impervious cover has been added.
The Two Best Methods of Permit-Free Paving
In these applications, the process of installing either the TRUEGRID ROOT system or the TRUEGRID PRO PLUS pavers is quick and painless and doesn’t require any additional drainage or maintenance once it’s complete.
This means you won’t have to worry about resurfacing your parking lot, resealing it, repainting it, or performing any of the common maintenance that asphalt and concrete lots require. Both the TRUEGRID ROOT system and TRUEGRID PRO PLUS are low-maintenance and eco-friendly.
All the Benefits of Asphalt and Concrete with None of the Hassle
If you want to install a durable, long-lasting, stylish, permeable, and versatile parking lot in less than half the time it would take you to lay an asphalt or concrete lot, you should install a permeable paver lot. Whether you’re using the TRUEGRID ROOT system for grass or TRUEGRID PRO PLUS pavers for stabilizing gravel, either type of lot will cost you far less, require almost zero maintenance, and last for decades.
Especially if you’re in a position where you can’t afford to or don’t want to go through the hassle of obtaining a special permit, both the TRUEGRID PRO PLUS pavers and the TRUEGRID ROOT system can help you install a parking lot without these requirements. If you’re working with an already existing gravel lot that is unstabilized, or you want to lay a quick parking lot over plain grass, these products are the only way you can pave without a permit.
