Some Nationwide Children’s Hospital employees are choosing to park in nearby Columbus neighborhoods rather than the hospital’s garages and lots, clogging on-street parking spaces and frustrating residents.
“We couldn’t even get our streets cleaned,” said Brenda Gischel, president of the Schumacher Place Civic Association.
In response, Columbus officials have developed a proposed plan that would prevent parking on some streets in the Schumacher Place and Southern Orchards neighborhoods near the hospital and require permit parking and time restrictions on other streets.
“It will give some people relief on their parking,” Gischel said.
City parking officials met with members of the Schumacher Place Civic Association on April 3 and the Southern Orchards Civic Association on May 1 to talk about draft proposals for parking restrictions in both neighborhoods.
Any resident who lives in the proposed parking zones would be eligible for one parking permit per licensed driver.
Each residential permit would cost $25 per year, although low-income residents would be eligible for discounted $10 permits.
Resident guest permits would cost $25 per address annually. A maximum of 300 one-day permits per household per year would be available for $2 each.
There also are plans for time limits on some streets. One would limit parking to three hours between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. every day so workers would not be able to park there during the regular business day. Another would limit parking to three hours between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. Permit-holders would be exempt.
Gischel said she hopes the changes will prevent hospital employees and construction workers from taking up valuable parking spaces on the neighborhood streets. She said hospital workers begin parking there at 7 a.m., with construction workers often taking up spaces from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Adam Cohn, an airline pilot who lives on South Ninth Street between Jackson and Beck streets, said the area is overwhelmed with the cars of hospital employees. He thinks permit parking will help in Schumacher Place.
“The whole northeast quadrant is inundated with development,” he said of the neighborhood. Construction workers helping to build a nearby apartment complex and hospital office buildings clog the streets, Cohn said.
Robert Ferrin, the city’s assistant director of parking services, said some hospital employees choose to park on neighborhood streets because they are closer to their offices.
Angela Mingo, the hospital’s community relations director, said she understands neighbors’ concerns.
The hospital discourages employees from parking in neighborhoods, she said. All employees pay a fee to park in garages and lots. The hospital employs about 10,000 people at its main campus near Livingston and Parsons avenues just east of downtown Columbus.
Mingo said some employees are shuttled in from a lot on Jenkins Avenue, more than a mile away.
City officials are accepting feedback through June 29 and will mail notices of the final plan to residents in August. Plans call for accepting applications for permits to begin in October, with enforcement beginning in November.
mferench@dispatch.com
@MarkFerenchik