Student parking has always been an issue, school district offials said.
By: Lea Kahn
School district officials have come up with a two-pronged approach to ensure there is adequate parking for students and staff on the Lawrence High School campus.
The officials devised a scheme that encourages students to share parking spaces as assigned by the traditional lottery system. Also, there are plans to add as many as 32 parking spaces on campus.
The changes were made in response to neighbors’ complaints about students who park in spaces in front of their houses on residential streets across Princeton Pike from the high school.
The residents had taken their complaints to Township Council. Earlier this month, the council adopted an ordinance that restricts parking on the streets to residents and a number of "nonresidents" students and staff.
Student parking has always been an issue, school district officials said. Last year the high school administration resorted to a lottery system in an effort to control the parking situation. There were 250 requests for 166 spots, which meant about 90 students were not assigned parking spaces.
While that system worked last fall, by spring it was clear that it would not work, said Max Riley, superintendent of schools. Students began parking on the streets across from the high school, and the residents complained to Township Council.
"We have been considering a solution since last spring. One solution was more blacktop, but then there are drainage problems," Dr. Riley said.
Water would run off the blacktop and onto properties across the street from the school, he said.
So school district officials devised a plan that encourages pairs of students to share one assigned parking space on campus. The incentive for this program is that students who participate do not need to take part in the permit lottery.
The result is that of the 320 eligible high school seniors, 120 agreed to share a parking space with a friend, Dr. Riley said. That meant 60 parking spaces were assigned. Permits for the remaining 106 spots were handed out to students by lottery, he said.
Some eligible seniors may not have requested a space for any number of reasons, said Dr. Riley. Some may not have access to a car, some may walk to school. The bottom line is that the district has been able to accommodate all seniors who requested a parking space and there are still spaces left over, he said.
Also, Dr. Riley said he asked Bo Hitchcock, director of school district facilities, to find 20 additional parking spots. Mr. Hitchcock found room for 32 new spaces on the campus, said the superintendent.
Ten of the new parking spaces are expected to be ready in a month, Dr. Riley said. Those parking spaces are located next to the existing parking lot, near the maintenance yard. The township has agreed to put down road millings the top layer of asphalt that is skimmed off a road when it is being resurfaced to create the new parking spots.
Another 10 parking places may be created between the academic wing and the main high school building, on the north side of the campus, Dr. Riley said. And a dozen more parking spaces may be created by paving part of the grass inside the entrance loop in front of the school, he said.
"I think it will take the pressure off the residents for the next two years, and maybe even a little longer," Dr. Riley said of the two-pronged approach to solve parking woes.
In the meantime, no permits have been issued for non-residents who want to park on the nine streets covered by the township’s permit-parking ordinance, according to Municipal Manager William Guhl. Each street could accommodate about seven or eight parking spaces under the plan, he said.

