Tom Dell
The Columbus Parking Commission is recommending that the city expand its trial of unlimited parking on downtown side streets.
The commission has decided to ask the Columbus Board of Works to add Jackson Street, from Second to Fifth Street, to the area where three-hour limits on parking spaces are currently not being enforced, said Chairman and Columbus City Councilman Tom Dell. This recommendation will likely be presented at this Tuesday’s board meeting, or on March 21.
The Board of Works voted in December to approve the commission’s recommendation that a number of downtown side streets move from three-hour limits to free, all-day parking on a trial basis. This went into effect in mid-January, with city officials saying they would monitor how the change affects parking space availability on Washington Street.
According to Executive Director of Public Works Dave Hayward, the following areas are included in the trial: Fourth Street from Jackson to Franklin, Fifth Street from Jackson to Franklin, Sixth Street from Jackson to Franklin and Seventh Street from Jackson to Franklin.
Dell said that the trial run has yielded better turnover on Washington Street, increased use of the unregulated spaces and shifted some parking away from the lot at the corner of Seventh and Franklin. There have been “no major complaints” from the public, he said.
However, the commission would like to continue monitoring utilization in the trial area — including Jackson Street, if it is added — before making a recommendation on whether to make the change permanent.
“We feel like it was warranted to go to Jackson Street, because with Cummins not being back fully yet, those spaces could be for potential, for some other additional entry-level employees downtown as well as consumers,” said Dell. “… We wouldn’t have probably made that suggestion if Cummins was back to full employment downtown, because they (the spaces) might have gotten consumed by them.”
In addition to its suggestion about Jackson Street, the commission is also recommending that the Board of Works cut the cost of leasing spaces in two city-owned lots, said Dell.
Lots 3 and 10 are located at Fourth and Franklin and Seventh and Franklin, respectively. The commission has recommended that the cost of leasing space in these lots be cut from $65 per month to $32.50.
“We’re hoping to shift some of the folks off the street into a permanent situation in either one of those parking lots, and we’ll see how that goes,” said Dell.
He added that he recently attended a merchants’ meeting where some individuals expressed concern about traffic problems that occur when large trucks park on Washington Street and other vehicles have to drive around them. He said the commission is looking into whether there’s a way to regulate this issue.
They’re also looking into whether a change in enforcement equipment could eliminate one of the recurring complaints they’ve heard about the current three-hour parking system — that is, that someone who parks for a short period of time early in the day and comes back later could get ticketed as if they’d been there for more than three hours.
The Columbus Police Department is still researching equipment related to this matter, said Dell. He expects that they may be ready to report on it at the commission’s next meeting. A date for that meeting has yet to be determined, but it will likely occur in early April.
“We’ll probably make the discussion on whether we think we need to start moving to the point of digging into our ordinance to see if there’s some tweaks and things we want to make to that,” said Dell, “and seeing about whether we want to pursue the permanency of some of the trials that we’ve had at that point in time.”
