University Neighborhoods Revitalization Plan CONCEPT DOCUMENT

Core Value #4: The University District shall be a neighborhood of choice.

This is one of five chapters that address safety and law enforcement, community schools, circulation, transit, and parking of the Neighborhoods. Being a neighborhood of choice requires that streets and parking areas are safe and access is adequate to public transit and other key services such as quality community schools.

Parking

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The relationship between parking and land use is symbiotic; the University Neighborhoods have historically had too little parking to meet demand. During the nine months of the year when students are in school, the undersupply of available parking spaces is magnified. Additional parking problems abound with relation to the revitalization of High Street. Commercial retailers demand an adequate supply of close parking which currently does not exist. Chapter 14.0 explores the parking problems in both the residential and commercial areas, and suggest ways to alleviate the problems.

14.0 PARKING

A. Objectives

The resolution of parking issues within the Neighborhoods and the High Street Corridor is addressed in this chapter. During the months when school is in session, there is intense competition for parking in the Neighborhoods. The rejuvenation of the High Street Corridor depends on an adequate parking supply close to the retailers and other businesses. The following three objectives define the discussion in this chapter:

Objective 1: Define and establish a parking program for the residential areas within the District.

Objective 2: Define and establish a parking program for the commercial district along the High Street Corridor.

Objective 3: Define and establish a parking program for the commercial and residential district along the Lane Avenue corridor.

B. Policies and Recommendations

Policy 14.1: Define parking needs by neighborhood and block; provide on- and off-street parking space needs based on the current Overlay Zoning Code.

Recommendation 14.1.1: Prioritize localized parking needs by user groups (including: residents, visitors, business patrons, and employees) and coordinate with land use and development.

Policy 14.2: Encourage students to warehouse their vehicles in long term parking facilities where available, by improving security and offering economic incentives.

Recommendation 14.2.1: Use alleys and rear yards for consolidation into more efficient and better-regulated off-street parking lots; reprioritize use of parking, with off-street expansion for student residential areas.

Recommendation 14.2.2: Acquire problem properties for limited conversion to "pocket parking lots" (using design standards to minimize their visual impact); use "area-service" principle and develop economical parking reservoirs in the middle of blocks with dense housing.

Policy 14.3: Control/eliminate commuter parking in the residential areas.

Recommendation 14.3.1: Introduce an aggressive parking permit system with limitations on auto use, relate housing density to auto ownership and parking needs, and institute the following:

A tightly managed parking permit system for most streets within the East Campus area coordinated with incentives to use West Campus parking.
A 24-hour resident-only parking permit system in a collar-zone surrounding the East Campus area.
A parking permit program for all other areas of the University Neighborhoods (as requested by each neighborhood) effective 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. with up to two-hour parking allowed without a permit.

Policy 14.4: Provide parking facilities for businesses in accordance with patron and employee needs; define operations and enforcement to control use by others.

Recommendation 14.4.1: Construct new off-street parking lots along Pearl Street on residual land acquired for the widening and improvement of Pearl Street; these lots should be controlled with short-term parking meters

Recommendation 14.4.2: Work with Ohio State to improve the marketing and use of existing and future Ohio State parking facilities to support the Lane Avenue commercial corridor.

Recommendation 14.4.3: Assist businesses in the development of a parking control and enforcement program to protect patron and employee parking areas from unauthorized use.

Recommendation 14.4.4: Assure the parking requirements are maintained during the review process to require the following parking space for new developments: 3.0 spaces per 1,000 square feet of retail space, and 2.5 spaces per 1,000 square feet of office space.

Policy 14.5: Devote on-street parking to short-term use in the zones serving the High Street commercial area.

Recommendation 14.5.1: Install short-term parking meters on High Street north of Norwich Avenue to Blake Avenue; restrict usage on the west side during the a.m. peak commuter hours and on the east side during the p.m. peak hour.

Recommendation 14.5.2: Provide short-term parking meters on the north side of 15th Avenue, generally between Pearl Street and Indianola Avenue, with operations 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Recommendation 14.5.3: Provide short-term meters in the parking areas west of Pearl Street and on streets east of Pearl Street (from Chittenden Avenue to Woodruff Avenue) for a minimum distance of approximately 200 feet with hours of operation from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. where a surplus of on street parking exists, explore extension of meters further to the east up to 400 feet. Consideration should be given to the removal of the meters east of Pearl Street when off-street parking facilities are developed in the area.

Recommendation 14.5.4: Allow curb parking along the east side of High Street (where parking does not interfere with bus stop and traffic operation), between East 11th Avenue and Lane Avenue, from 7:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.

Policy 14.6: Expand the off-street parking supply through a combination of new parking structures and improved marketing of Ohio State parking garages.

Recommendation 14.6.1: Develop a Parking Benefits District that captures meter revenue, fines and permit fees generated within the District. Dedicate these monies to improving the supply, quality and affordability of parking within the District.

Recommendation 14.6.2: Work with Ohio State to improve the marketing and use of existing Ohio State parking facilities to support the High Street commercial corridor. This could be accomplished by permitting High Street businesses to purchase parking spaces as available for their employees, and by developing more user friendly signage for the garages, and by instituting a fee structure for off-peak use by the public. For evening purposes, coordinated use of this inventory would be a major asset. Certain major campus events would require reservation of this supply; however, this could be coordinated with proper communication to High Street patrons.

Recommendation 14.6.3: Construct a parking structure near 17th Avenue along Pearl Street with direct access to High Street to provide parking for High Street employees and patrons.

Recommendation 14.6.4: Construct parking structures as part of the redevelopment nodes near 11th Avenue, 15th Avenue, and Lane Avenue. Assure their design is not intrusive to the neighborhoods, and special attention is given to massing, lighting, ground floor uses, and materials.

C. Setting and Current Issues

Parking may be the dominant transportation-related issue the University Neighborhoods faces. The parking impact of the Ohio State population in the Neighborhoods, the parking needs of residents (especially considering increased auto ownership in the area), and the parking needs of the High Street and Lane Avenue commercial corridors combine to escalate the issue of parking.

Ohio State provides parking for faculty, staff, students, and visitors. Two major parking garages are located along High Street (one north of Arps Hall near 18th Avenue and one north of the Ohio Union at 14th Avenue). These two garages are fee-parking facilities available for public use and have the potential to support High Street land uses.

Other campus parking facilities are located within the campus (with controlled access roads), on the northern and southern edges of the campus, and west of the Olentangy River. The West Campus parking spaces are currently underutilized. These spaces are available for student parking, either for commuting students or for local area resident students who need storage (or warehouse) parking. Ohio State has attempted to attract student parkers to these facilities as a means to remove student vehicles from neighborhood parking and prevent the inevitable conflict (competition) for parking space on residential streets.

In the area surrounding the Ohio State campus (i.e., a zone generally bound by Patterson Avenue on the north, Fourth Street on the east, and West 5th and East 8th Avenues on the south) there are approximately 16,300 parking spaces--excluding Ohio State parking facilities. Of these, 4,900 spaces are located on-street and 11,400 spaces are located in off-street facilities. Parking conditions within this study area are highly variable as verified by surveys conducted in March, April, and May of 1995. Data was collected for weekday, weekend day, daytime, and evening conditions.

Key findings from these parking surveys are as follows:

On a day when Ohio State classes were in session, early morning parking occupancy was 10,900 spaces, with 79 percent of on-street spaces and 62 percent of off-street spaces occupied. This demand level reflects the presence of residents (permanent, transient, and student).

By mid-morning, occupancy dropped to 9,700 spaces. On-street space use stayed at the same level, but off-street space use fell to 52 percent. This condition reflected the departure of residents (likely commuting to jobs elsewhere). The lack of increased use in on-street parking indicates the impact of the residential parking permit program. This program inhibits the inflow of commuter vehicles to neighborhood streets; however, some of this still occurs because all streets do not have permit regulation.

The amount of vacant parking space might indicate that there are no major parking problems. However, half of the sub-areas exhibit very high (over 90 percent) occupancy levels for on-street spaces. These zones are located north and east of the Ohio State campus and, practically speaking, no on-street space is available in these areas.

Overall, the off-street system exhibits a high degree of vacancy. One of the factors influencing this situation is that most off-street parking is private. Its use is restricted to tenants, owners, renters, or customers. Such parking is not available (legally) for public use, including use by commuters. The vast majority of off-street parking (88 percent or 10,000 spaces) is residential-related. These spaces include many informal (unmarked) parking lots located in the blocks close to the campus. Some of this capacity is not practical nor convenient to use and, therefore, may represent an overestimate of the off-street resources.

Data collected during the week of Ohio State’s spring vacation indicated that the overall parking demand decreased by 4,200 spaces. This decrease represents the vehicles of students and some staff who were absent during the vacation week. Thus, it is estimated that the base parking demand (no normal Ohio State impact) is 5,500 spaces during the midday. During the overnight hours, the demand is 6,500 spaces, reflecting permanent residential demand.

Along the High Street Corridor between 5th Avenue and Blake Avenue the total parking supply (on- and off-street) is 1,530 spaces (between the alleys paralleling High Street on the east and west sides; exclusive of parking at Ohio State). Occupancy in early and late evening, when this supply is most heavily used, amounts to over 90 percent in two sections: north of Lane Avenue and from 11th to 15th Avenues. Other sections exhibit high occupancy only in the early evening.

The existing High Street commercial parking supply is not only limited in the number of spaces that are available; there is also limited access to and from High Street. The existing series of alternating one-way east-west streets, the cul-de-sacs on several intermediate streets east of High Street, the lack of continuous alley access from Pearl Street, and the one-way sections of Pearl Street all lend to the limited accessibility of many of the existing commercial parking facilities. Many parking areas require the driver to circulate through the adjacent residential neighborhood to access the commercial parking. This includes the on-street parking located at the cul-de-sacs. Few of the off-street facilities in the High Street Corridor have direct access to High Street. Most only have access from the alley or from the terminated east-west streets. This makes access to the commercial parking areas difficult for those unfamiliar with the area.

Surveys of business establishments along High Street revealed that many suffer from lack of convenient, nearby parking and from poor service-vehicle access. Many indicated a loss of trade (such as lunch-hour patronage or regional customers) as a direct result of the lack of parking. Another concern was the lack of affordable parking for employees, many of whom earn near minimum wage.

Business establishments along Lane Avenue, near Tuttle Park Place, also identified lack and control of parking as an issue. Some desire a working relationship with Ohio State for use of campus parking spaces when not needed by Ohio State. Others fear that new developments in the area, together with parking demands generated by Ohio State events, will cause excessive parking demands in the area forcing existing businesses to place complex control systems on their private lots to ensure parking spaces for their customers and visitors.

A special aspect of the overall parking system is the current residential parking permit program. This program applies to various streets around the edge of campus with 11 established permit zones. Permits are in effect during the daytime hours from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., or 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Residents within these zones can secure permits upon request with a fee of $25.00.

D. Programs and Concepts

The goal in developing the parking element of the Revitalization Plan was to balance the need for adequate parking to support both commercial and residential uses with the need for adequate and efficient vehicular circulation. The parking program needs to consider both existing land uses and future development in the area and to recognize the inherent relationship of transportation, especially parking, to land-use development.

In choosing alternatives to be recommended for the parking plan, each alternative was evaluated in the context of: (1) how it fit into an overall system for the area, and (2) to what extent the alternative satisfied the specific needs identified for each neighborhood and the overall study area. A recommended program was developed that reflects a basic strategy to best manage the scarce parking resources by addressing two principal elements:

Protection of residential parking resources through control of parking demand (especially commuter students) and creation of parking resources for off-campus student residents in the University Neighborhoods to enhance parking opportunities and attract students to this area.

Provision of patron short-term and evening parking resources to support the commercial corridor.

The first element reflects several criteria that each alternative was evaluated against. These included the alternative's ability to increase the number of available parking spaces for residents through increasing the overall parking supply or reallocating existing parking spaces by restricting their use to residents only. This protection, however, must be achieved without reducing the number of available commercial parking spaces. The protection of parking also must not become a hardship to the residents. The resident survey indicated a reluctance to add controls to the parking in their neighborhood. This is due to the cost and inconvenience of acquiring a parking permit for themselves and for guests. Finally, the concept must address the problems on a wide scale and must not provide a solution for one neighborhood at the expense of another.

The second element reflects the need to address the existing parking shortage in the commercial areas and the need for more parking if additional commercial uses are developed along Lane Avenue and High Street. With several changes proposed to the street system in the overall study area to improve access and circulation on the street system, improved access to the parking system must also be developed. Alternatives were evaluated as to how they would increase the amount of commercial parking and the supply of evening parking. They were also evaluated with regard to how they would improve access and circulation to commercial parking facilities. The alternatives that provide the best overall improvement to the parking conditions became part of the final recommendations.

The translation of a parking strategy into a series of actions resulted in the following suggested initiating programs:

Protection of Residential Parking Resources: The first element is the consolidation and reorganization of residential off-street parking in key residential blocks. The alleys and parking areas along the alleys of some key residential blocks should be consolidated to create more efficient central parking areas.

One situation that would be a candidate for this type of conversion would be blocks where adjacent on-street parking would be removed to provide additional traffic lanes or to convert one-way streets to two-way operation. In this scenario, off-street parking spaces would be developed behind the residences to replace lost on-street spaces. These spaces would likely need to be controlled by parking permits. Candidates for this type of parking conversion could include blocks along East 11th Avenue, West 10th Avenue, and selected blocks along East Woodruff, Indianola, and East 12th Avenues.

A second situation would be to replace on-street permit parking with open parking and provide the permit spaces off the adjacent alley. The on-street parking would accommodate visitor and short-term parking needs, while the alley spaces would accommodate the long-term resident parking needs.

A third situation would be blocks with high-density residential development that could make more efficient use of limited space by sharing parking facilities. In those blocks, parking would be allocated to adjacent buildings on a unit basis, with unused parking from one building being used by another building that has more vehicles. Candidate blocks for this type of treatment include blocks in the East Campus Neighborhood.

Area A would cover the East Campus generally bound by Pearl Street on the west, the alley north of East Woodruff Avenue on the north, Summit Street on the east, and the east-west alley between East 11th and Chittendon Avenues on the south. Within this area, there would be a mixture of parking control strategies, including: (1) open parking (i.e., no controls) particularly in the fraternity and sorority areas; (2) parking permits for the established "J," "R," and "S" zones; and (3) short-term parking meters. The parking meters should have one-hour time limits. Those along East 15th Avenue should have 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. operations, while those on east-west streets east of Pearl Street should have 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. operations. The residential permit areas should be designated 24-hour permit parking only zones.

Area B would be the transition from Area A and would be restricted to 24-hour permit (resident and visitor) parking only. There are three sub-areas making up Area B. The northern sub-area would be north of Area A and extend to (and include) Oakland Avenue, with an eastern boundary at Fourth Street. The eastern sub area would be east of Area A, with basically 20th and 11th Avenues as the northern and southern limits. The southern sub area would basically be south of the Ohio State campus to West 8th Avenue between Neil Avenue and High Street.

Area C would be permit parking areas north, east, and south of Areas A and B. These permit areas would be effective 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. with up to two hours of parking allowed without a permit. To be effective until 6:00 p.m., the signage will have to be posted with an 8:00 p.m. cut-off time.

The boundaries of permit areas should be established by the City, basically along planning area boundaries, to reduce the administrative problems with the current permit system by eliminating the petition process.

With the expansion of the permit areas, more permits will be sold. As such, it would be appropriate to reduce the cost of each permit. The cost of the permits should be set to cover the administrative costs of the program. Appropriate ordinances would have to be approved to accomplish this.

The parking permit process also requires some special attention to eliminate misuse of the system. The current process allows automatic renewal by mail which is not particularly practical in the East, South and North Campus Neighborhoods where the student population changes annually. Also, there appears to be some counterfeiting of permits. Better quality permits with easier license plate correlations probably are in order.

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Figure 19: Parking Management Areas

Parking to Support Commercial Areas: The primary commercial area lies along the High Street Corridor. Specific recommendations for this corridor include the following elements:

The use of vacant spaces in the two Ohio State parking structures west of High Street would help support the High Street commercial area. The Arps Hall garage has approximately 900 parking spaces. It is fully occupied during the day on weekdays until 5:30 p.m., but after that time there are 450 to 550 spaces available. The Union garage has approximately 1,060 spaces. During the day there are usually 150 vacant spaces in the garage. In the evening after 5:30 p.m., approximately 500 parking spaces are available in the garage. A working relationship with Ohio State needs to be developed to improve the marketing and use of these facilities - including more user-friendly signage and reduced parking fees for off-peak usage.

Beyond the use of the existing Ohio State facilities, additional parking will be required to fully support the redevelopment of the High Street Corridor. Parking structures should be constructed as a part of the development nodes near Lane and High and near 11th and High. Also, a parking structure should be considered somewhere near 15th Avenue--perhaps at 17th Avenue since an access road from High Street can be provided at this location.

Short-term parking meters should be installed along the High Street and Pearl Street corridors to provide for patron parking. Consideration should also be given to allowing parking along the east side of High Street, between East 11th Avenue and Lane Avenue from 7:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m., until additional off-street parking facilities are constructed in the corridor.

While the number of parking spaces required by commercial land uses will vary depending upon the specific use, it is recommended that 3.0 parking spaces per 1,000 square feet be provided for retail uses. This yields approximately 1 space for employees per 1,000 square feet and 2 spaces for patrons per 1,000 square feet. These ratios recognize that approximately one-half of the retail employees come from within the area and do not drive (as a separate trip). They also recognize that approximately two-thirds of the retail patrons of many establishments come (or will come) from outside the area thus requiring a parking space. Based on a survey of businesses along the corridor, only a few (such as bookstores and some restaurants) rely predominantly on the built-in trade generated by Ohio State.

The other commercial area lies along the Lane Avenue corridor. In the area near Tuttle Park Place, business owners and operators identified the lack and control of parking as an issue. Some desire a working relationship with Ohio State for use of campus parking spaces when not needed by Ohio State. Others fear that new developments in the area, together with parking demands generated by Ohio State events, will cause excessive parking demands in the area, forcing existing businesses to place complex control systems on their private lots to ensure parking spaces for their customers and visitors. Further studies and discussions are required to properly address these issues.

Parking Benefits District: The plan includes recommendations for off-street parking improvements in addition to improved management of on-street parking (short-term metered and permit parking). To implement such a program, it is desirable to use a "system-based" approach. This could take the form of a special benefit district.

Such a district could be established by the city of Columbus for the University Neighborhoods. The district would be responsible for all off-street and on-street parking. It would be administered by the City. The district would coordinate various sources of financial resources for a parking program such as meter income, permit fees from the area, rental/lease income, and parking fines. The concept is that all funds collected in the area would be spent on improvements to benefit the area-including subsidizing the construction, maintenance, and operation of off-street parking lots and parking structures in the area.

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