Plan to bring paid parking to downtown Columbus now delayed indefinitely. Here’s why
City officials have paused plans to implement a paid parking system in downtown Columbus following strong public opposition.
The City Manager’s office planned on presenting a proposal to Columbus Council on March 23 regarding the pay stations, but that has been shelved indefinitely, City Manager Isaiah Hugley and Deputy City Manager Lisa Goodwin said at a Tuesday night meeting.
Discussions regarding paid parking downtown will continue, but they will be paused while local businesses continue to recover from financial difficulties brought on by COVID-19.
“We do not want to do something that adversely affects downtown businesses,” Hugley told the audience.
The city had drafted a plan to install mid-block pay stations downtown by January 2022. There would be a pay station for every 10 spaces, Goodwin said at the meeting, and customers would pay $2 for two hours.
“There is plenty of parking,” Goodwin said. “ ... The problem is, nobody wants to park off-street.”
Off-street refers to the downtown parking decks, which city officials said would remain free after street parking is enforced.
The agreement to pause the plan came after a strong objection to the proposed measures — none of which are a “done deal,” according to Hugley.
Around 35 individuals, including residents and downtown business owners, were present at the start of Tuesday’s public meeting at the Columbus Convention & Trade Center, with more entering after proceedings began.
All of the individuals who spoke at the meeting said they were opposed to paid parking.
Robert Battle, co-owner of Maltitude and Nonic, compared paid parking to a $2 “tax” on potential customers.
Eddie Spear, owner of The Well CSG, told Hugley and Goodwin, “Our small businesses, COVID-19 notwithstanding, are going to continue to suffer” if plans for the pay stations moved forward.
Why is the city considering pay stations?
An internal audit report of the METRA department, which manages the uptown parking enforcement area, was presented to the council in September 2019 and reignited the council’s interest in installing meters, the Ledger-Enquirer previously reported.
The audit stated the current parking system causes harm to uptown businesses and their patrons. The source of the conflict is employees, city staff have said, who often park in front of the businesses they work at instead of in one of the area’s free parking decks, essentially taking away parking options for potential patrons of the businesses and causing them to shop elsewhere.
Goodwin referenced the employee parking issue last week in an interview with the Ledger-Enquirer and again on Tuesday night.
The current timed parking zones often result in tickets of $40 for drivers who don’t move their vehicles within the time allotted.
Among the ideas floated Tuesday night by downtown business owners was stricter enforcement of the timed parking zones, rather than pay-per-hour parking.
The downtown parking area goes from Bay Avenue to Third Avenue and from Ninth Street to 14th Street. On-street parking encompasses 1,634 total spaces where time zones are enforced.
