Parking problem at Columbus High brings school, city officials together; public forum set
These grown-ups met in a classroom and toured the neighborhood in a school bus Friday. And after more than an hour of exchanging information and insight, questions and suggestions, the dozen officials from the Muscogee County School District and Columbus Consolidated didn't produce an agreement to solve the parking problem around Columbus High School, but they agreed to continue seeking a solution that satisfies both constituencies.
To that end, the city government will conduct a public forum Sept. 8, starting at 6 p.m., in the Columbus Council Chamber, to hear residents' opinions. After that, city manager Isaiah Hugley said, the administration will make a recommendation to the council.
Meanwhile, city engineering director Donna Newman said she and other officials met Thursday with three neighborhood coordinators, who expressed two other concerns in addition to the parking: students dropping trash in the neighborhood while walking to and from their cars, and music coming from the school's baseball field being too loud.
Superintendent David Lewis said Columbus High principal Marvin Crumbs has ordered trash cans to be affixed to poles around the campus perimeter to give the students a better chance of not littering.
Newman suggested school officials could notify the neighborhood coordinators about upcoming events so they could alert fellow residents to be prepared or choose to not be at home then. Crumbs noted the baseball schedule is posted on the school's website and the concert was a one-time fundraiser.
Hugley said he isn't advocating for the neighborhood coordinators, "but those were just points they made. You can decide whether you want to do that and have a better relationship with them or not."
"We definitely want to do what we can," Lewis said.
Deputy city manager Pam Hodge added that the neighborhood coordinators also complained about loud music coming from the school on Sundays, "when a lot of times some of the parents would come up and work on the ballfield."
Lewis said school officials can notify the neighborhood coordinators about the baseball schedule and special events. "As far as the parents working on the baseball field or homecoming or whatever it might be, they just need to be reminded to keep the noise down to a reasonable level."
Hugley emphasized, "Our focus is the parking, but we wanted to share with you the concerns that were expressed to us. They were steadfast on their concern for parking in front of their homes along the streets, and we expressed to them that we were looking to the school district to bring some options that would be workable options for them and parents and the school district and for the city."
City officials showed the neighborhood coordinators the options they presented to the council, Hugley said, "and short of an option that comes from the school district that we could work with, we would take it to council, and council would decide."
Those options include parking restrictions along residential streets around the school during certain hours and the use of parking decals, which the neighborhood coordinators favor, Hugley said.
Lewis stressed the importance of understanding the size of the parking problem. He distinguished between the students parking in front of houses and those parking across the street along the perimeter of the school's property, as well as those parking in or along the park at Lakebottom.
Crumbs said students have 243 spaces in the school's parking lot. He estimated 250 students park in the neighborhood around the school. The problem gets worse throughout the school year as many sophomores who turn 16 start driving to school as well, he said.
"There's a big difference between 50 car spots versus 250," Lewis said. "The options are significantly different, both in terms of scope and cost."
During the Aug. 11 council meeting, 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 then that building a parking deck at the school's current lot would be a possibility. But none of those options was mentioned during Friday's gathering.
Instead, the bulk of the discussion involved creating more parking on the neighborhood streets. "We just don't know how many we'll gain from any effort we'll do," Hugley said. "I know it won't be many."
City survey crews found the following dispersal of student cars in the neighborhood the past several days, Newman said:
About a dozen inside the park.
About 42 north of 17th Street on Cherokee Avenue.
About 10-12 south of 17th on Cherokee.
About 40 on Forest Avenue, primarily on the west side.
And, in a addition to a few student cars on side streets such as Sonora, 20th and 21st, there is "a large number" that park on Wildwood Avenue, she said.
Beyond the nuisance of blocking driveways or taking up spaces, Newman said, students parking in the neighborhood sometimes commit violations, including parking too close to fire hydrants. They also create sight problems by parking too close to intersections, she said. The city could stripe parking spaces along the west side of Forest Avenue, beside the campus and opposite the houses, and create a barrier near the corner to prevent cars from encroaching on the intersection, she said.
After the bus tour of the neighborhood, the officials huddled to share their observations.
The frustration in trying to find more appropriate parking spaces for the students, Hugley said, is that "if we fix one street or one area, it's only going to transfer them to another area." He suggested the parking spaces on Cherokee Avenue could be marked with some reserved for park users and others for students.
"It's hard when the taxpaying citizens invested in this park a few years back $4.5 million to get it where it's at," he said, "it's difficult to say that we're going to allow more students to park in and around the park."
The students' parents also pay taxes, countered Kia Chambers, the nine-member Muscogee County School Board's lone citywide representative and the only elected official at Friday's gathering.
"We could stress that it's on a first-come, first-serve basis," Hugley continued. "It's not a decision for me to make. I will make a recommendation, but our elected officials will make the decision."
Hugley concluded by restating, "Our goal is to work with the Muscogee County School District, the residents on these various streets and the parents of the students,"
Lewis agreed, "We share that same goal."
Mark Rice, 706-576-6272. Follow him on Twitter@MarkRiceLE.
PUBLIC FORUM
What: Columbus Consolidated Government's public forum to give residents a chance to voice their opinion about the problems and solutions concerning parking around Columbus High School.
When: Sept. 8 at 6 p.m.
Where: Columbus Council Chamber, City Services Center, 3111 Citizens Way
This story was originally published August 28, 2015 at 4:33 PM with the headline "Parking problem at Columbus High brings school, city officials together; public forum set ."