Peoria, AZ Parking Rules: Loading Zones (2026)

Section 21-904 of the Zoning Ordinance sets the dimensional and placement rules for commercial loading berths citywide. Standard berths must be at least 45 feet long, 12 feet wide and 14 feet high, though a 30-by-10-foot berth can be approved through the site plan process for offices, motels, hotels, restaurants, day care centers and long-term care facilities. A loading berth can sit in any required yard except a front or corner side yard, and it cannot come within 50 feet of a residential zoning district unless screened by a masonry wall at least 10 feet tall; berths placed in side yards can never be visible from a public street.

Every berth must be reachable from a street or alley without crossing through a residential district, and vehicles may only leave the site by driving forward, never backing across a property line. Loading areas, aisles and access drives must be paved to a dust-proof, well-drained surface, and bumper rails are required wherever needed for safety. The code sets a sliding scale for how many berths a building needs: one berth for 5,000 to 40,000 square feet of aggregate gross floor area, two berths up to 100,000 square feet, three up to 160,000 square feet and four up to 240,000 square feet, continuing upward for larger buildings.

A site combining more than one qualifying use adds the square footage together to size its loading requirement, and berths built for one use cannot double as parking or as loading capacity for a different use on the same site. Major alterations or a new structure trigger the requirement at the time of construction.