WPCCA Monthly Meeting Minutes – April 24, 2019

Weinland Park Community Civic Association Monthly Meeting

Number of people at meeting: 27

Outstanding Neighbor Awardees: Cole and Sophia, children of Georgina Stevenson.

Amanda Ford with City of Columbus parking, ​parkingservices@columbus.gov

• Doing a “listening tour” from neighborhoods in the city parking applies to
• Potential changes being considered for June 2019.
• Feedback from Columbus parking permit users regarding the roll out of the parking permits:
  • Con:Harder to have guests, technology is difficult to use
  • Pro: Most people are now able to park on their street
  • Con: Technology challenges, working out the bugs
  • Con: Guest permits are too expensive
  • Pro: Lowered the cost of metered parking to encourage parking in metered parking rather than residential streets
• Zone S and E (Summit, 7th Ave, 5th Ave, High St.) 150 parking places. Based on data, the neighborhood is not oversold. 45% of all transactions happen on Fridays and Saturdays.
• Temporarily doing away with towing of cars during street sweeping in Zone S and E
• Q&A with Weinland Park residents at the meeting:
  • Business owner/resident of Zora’s House: Signage is too small and hard to see, distance between signs is too great.
  • What is the money for parking going towards?
    • After cost of covering parking enforcement employees/other expenses, the money can be invested back into the neighborhood. For example, they funded a shuttle from downtown parking garages which are emptying out at 4 p.m. to the Short North for employees who work evenings.
  • Are guest permits shareable?
    • You are free to use your 300 guest passes as you see fit
    • Prefer people not to sell guest permits
    • Would like to reduce cost to $3.00 for 24 hours of parking for guests
    • Allowing option for a second guest permit
  • App is kind of clunky. Applying for a permit by app was very difficult.
    • Hoping to make renewals of parking permits much easier
  • What is the difference between a guest pass and a guest permit?
    • Guest permit: you can change license plate info as many times as you want.
    • Guest pass: if you have more than one guest coming over, you will need to purchase an additional 24-hour guest pass. Email a guest pass code to your guest.
    • FAQ on parking plan website page for more answers
  • What about contractors coming to work on our house?
    • Contractor vehicles currently aren’t required to pay parking fees. Potential for special licensing contractor vehicles.
• Proposed changes:
  • Decreasing cost of guest passes
  • Reduce the daily rates by $.50
  • Adjusting day hours/evening hours. Day hours 8am-4pm, evening hours 4pm-8am
  • Because you can only park for 3 hours and then need to move. Employees are running into issues, extend from 3 hours to 6 hours; this is unlikely. They are considering it for during the day hours, not evening hours.
  • 6 month stabilization period—implementing these changes in phases rather than all at once.
  • How you can find out about changes. Database of all permit holders emails so updates/changes will sent by email to all permit holders.

Housing Committee Update (Laura Bidwa)

Six properties still in the portfolio of the Weinland Park Collaborative (Campus Partners on the deed). All are in disrepair.

• The current plan for these six properties is that they be given to the land trust. Land Trust=city and land bank take over the property and rebuild a single family home. The house only is leased, not the land. House is sold back to the city. Lowers the cost. Affordable home ownership for as long as the city has the trust.
  • One of the doubles is located in the historic district and cannot be demolished.
  • Housing Committee would like to see two doubles, 1243-1245 N 6th St, and 1324-1326 N 5th St, renovated and keep the architecture intact. Would sell them as four condos. What does the community think? Is this a priority?
  • Feedback from residents at the meeting:
    • Having a list of pros and cons of both options would be helpful to get feedback from the community: renovation vs. land trust process
    • Safe, Affordable Housing vs. Historic Preservation—which is a priority?
    • Structural engineer has looked over the properties
  • Introducing the ideas in this April meeting, will be voting on it in May WPCCA meeting

Announcements:

• May meeting will be fourth Thursday of the month
• Garden workdays: May 4 and 18 Bird Sanctuary Clean Up Day
• May 11 Garden Workday at 4th St Farms
• NW corner of Summit St and 5th Ave. Update: University Area Commission feedback was not positive toward the building, but because of the feedback from the neighborhood regarding the building, Laura Bidwa was able to share with confidence that the neighborhood supports this building. The proposal passed mostly because of the feedback from residents.