City considering ways to address parking problems around Columbus High

The city of Columbus is considering ways to restrict parking in the neighborhoods around Columbus High School in response to residents’ complaints about student parking clogging the streets.

Director of Engineering Donna Newman presented a proposal to Columbus Council Tuesday morning, suggesting new solutions to an old problem.

“This is not new,” Newman said. “This is something that’s been going on for years.”

The problem stems from the lack of available on-campus parking for CHS students. With only 235 parking spaces, many of which are reserved for faculty, in the school’s lot, many students are forced to seek parking spots on the adjacent streets.

That often means Cherokee Avenue along the length of Wildwood Park is packed from Garrard Street at the north end of the park to 17th Street, which bisects it. Later in the year, when more students have gotten their drivers licenses, Cherokee starts to fill up from 17th down to 13th Street at the southern end of the park.

The neighborhood directly behind the school, along Forest Avenue and one street over on Wildwood Avenue also sees overflow parking.

Newman said the plan the city came up with would limit parking around the park to four hours and restrict student parking in the adjacent neighborhoods.

“We came up with a parking plan that is very similar to what has been enacted in Uptown, where you have a mix of commercial, business and residential,” Newman said.

In the residential areas beside and around the school, the city would issue parking permits to residents of those neighborhoods, allowing them, but not students, to park on the streets. But there would also be almost 200 parking places open to students along Forest, directly behind the school, and in places on Wildwood, Garrard Street and Flournoy Drive.

City Manager Isaiah Hugley said he and other city staff met with Muscogee County School Superintendent David Lewis to discuss the problem and get his input on possible solutions. But that meeting could not be arranged until just last week.

“I shared with him what I thought could be possible options for the school district,” Hugley said. “But if we don’t have a better option from them, I see no other option but to move forward with the city’s plan.”

Hugley said options on the school district’s part could be to offer bus transportation to the almost 540 CHS students who have no bus options or to establish a park-and-ride lot elsewhere and run shuttles between it and the school. He also said building a parking deck where the current lot sits would be a possibility.

Hugley said Lewis took the suggestions and said he would go over them with his staff to see what might be both palatable and affordable.

“So we’re at this (proposed) option, if the Muscogee County School District fails to come forward with another option that would be agreeable to you and acceptable to the residents,” Hugley said.

Mayor Teresa Tomlinson said she had spoken to school board Chairman Rob Varner, who told her that last week’s meeting was the first he and the superintendent had heard of the issue, so they have not yet had time to formulate an alternative plan.

“They asked for time to consider some kind of solution,” Tomlinson said.

Newman had proposed bringing a draft ordinance to Council on Aug. 25, which would then have first and second readings at council’s September meetings and would go into effect Jan. 1 2016.

But several councilors balked at that timeline and suggested holding off on proposing an ordinance until the city hears back from the school district.

This story was originally published August 11, 2015 at 4:10 PM with the headline "City considering ways to address parking problems around Columbus High."