The City of Columbus is looking at forming a commission to supervise and work on downtown parking.
Redevelopment director Heather Pope said that city council will consider an ordinance to create this parking commission sometime in January.
“Currently, there’s no board or commission or department that considers all the aspects of our downtown parking,” she said at a recent redevelopment commission meeting. “There’s multiple departments that handle different pieces of it, but not one overarching body, so that’s what this commission would be charged with.”
She added that the downtown parking commission will work with the parking enforcement division, examine the pricing of city-owned lots, review requirements from the Americans with Disabilities Act and “consider implementing changes” to downtown parking.
Pope also said that the ordinance calls for a redevelopment commission member or designee to be on the downtown parking commission.
“That’s because the redevelopment commission owns two parking garages downtown and total, about 1,100 parking spaces downtown,” she said.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, downtown parking congestion was rare in 2020, as many employees continue to work from home and many downtown restaurants converted to order and pick-up mode for much of the year.
