UPDATE: The changes outlined below will go into effect on Monday, June 24 in the Short North.
Some of the new parking rules for the Short North that the City of Columbus rolled out in January will be changing this summer, including a price cut for resident guest passes and a reduction in how much it costs to park along side streets during the day.
When the city’s Assistant Director for Parking Services, Robert Ferrin, spoke to Columbus Underground last year about the new rules, he said that the overall goal was for 60 to 80 percent of on-street spots to be occupied at any one time. The new adjustments are designed to help achieve this, and to respond to feedback gathered from residents, businesses and neighborhood groups.
The first round of changes, which will go into effect on June 24, as outlined on the city’s website:
- Lower the 24-Hour Resident Guest Pass rate from $6 to $3
- Adjust the rate change timeframe from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. (at both meters and mobile pay zones)
- Lower mobile pay only (side street) parking rates from $2/hour to $1/hour between 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in permit zones SNA, SNB and SNE
- Reduce Goodale Street meter rates to $1/hour and remove time limit restriction
- In partnership with the Short North Alliance, enhance the already successful off-street retail validation program with a new on-street validation program through the Park Columbus app
A second round of changes is not yet finalized, but could be rolled out in late summer:
- Increase the number of guest permits available to residents from one to two
- Allow visitors to extend time in mobile pay (side street) zones for up to six hours
In addition to monitoring and updating the Short North rules, the city has also begun the planning process for implementing similar changes in other urban neighborhoods around Columbus.
A series of meetings were held in late April and early May, in which representatives from Parking Services presented information and solicited feedback from residents and interested stakeholders in four different areas – Downtown, Franklinton, the South Side and the University District.
The presentations for each of the areas, available here, provide a snap shot of the existing parking conditions, including maps showing meter locations and occupancy rates for both on-street and off-street spaces. In Downtown, for instance, there are over 100,000 off-street spaces available, accounting for nearly a quarter of the area’s total land area.
Work on the plans for the four different neighborhoods will continue throughout the summer, with a final product released in the fall. The city will be accepting feedback from the community until that time, through additional meetings, an online survey and an interactive WikiMap.
Note: This article was first published on May 15, 2019.
