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Metamora looks for parking solutions
High school dealing with vehicle overflow from main lot on its campus
Every spring, Ken Maurer hears the same complaints from nearby residents about Metamora Township High School students encroaching on their private property.
"Yes ... it is the time of year where our student parking lot is overflowing," the superintendent said. "It is also the time of year when the grass is soft, and with no curbs on the streets, students tend to park too far into people's yards."
When neighbors call the police to issue tickets, there is another dilemma: How do police know the difference between a student's car from that of the residents or their visitors?
The main parking lot on campus can accommodate about 350 students, but another 100 will have to park along nearby streets, where there are no curbs. With a tight budget, the board does not want to spend money building parking lots that will mainly be used the last quarter of the school year, Maurer said. While no immediate action is planned, there are three possible long-term solutions.
- Build a 250 space parking lot to the north of the building that also could be used for football game parking. This means building a road to connect to the school. The cost estimate is $615,000.
- Allow only juniors and seniors to park in the current student lot, and require freshman and sophomores to park in the parking lot a quarter of a mile to the north of the building at the baseball-softball-tennis complex. This means building a sidewalk from the athletic facility to the building and paying to plow them. The cost estimate for the 400-yard sidewalk is $46,500. Snow plowing costs vary.
- Try to rework the parking spots in the student lot and expand it to get a few more spaces. There are no cost estimates on this.
Maurer said that to help defray the cost of any of the above options: "We are considering a $50 charge for a sticker to park in the lot. Seniors would have first chance to buy a sticker and then juniors." Once all of the spaces have been purchased, other students would have to park in the street. This could generate about $15,000 a year.
"Yes ... it is the time of year where our student parking lot is overflowing," the superintendent said. "It is also the time of year when the grass is soft, and with no curbs on the streets, students tend to park too far into people's yards."
When neighbors call the police to issue tickets, there is another dilemma: How do police know the difference between a student's car from that of the residents or their visitors?
The main parking lot on campus can accommodate about 350 students, but another 100 will have to park along nearby streets, where there are no curbs. With a tight budget, the board does not want to spend money building parking lots that will mainly be used the last quarter of the school year, Maurer said. While no immediate action is planned, there are three possible long-term solutions.
- Build a 250 space parking lot to the north of the building that also could be used for football game parking. This means building a road to connect to the school. The cost estimate is $615,000.
- Allow only juniors and seniors to park in the current student lot, and require freshman and sophomores to park in the parking lot a quarter of a mile to the north of the building at the baseball-softball-tennis complex. This means building a sidewalk from the athletic facility to the building and paying to plow them. The cost estimate for the 400-yard sidewalk is $46,500. Snow plowing costs vary.
- Try to rework the parking spots in the student lot and expand it to get a few more spaces. There are no cost estimates on this.
Maurer said that to help defray the cost of any of the above options: "We are considering a $50 charge for a sticker to park in the lot. Seniors would have first chance to buy a sticker and then juniors." Once all of the spaces have been purchased, other students would have to park in the street. This could generate about $15,000 a year.
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