Page 58 - School Planning & Management, July/August 2017

FACILITIES { LEARNING SPACES }
The K-12 Parking Puzzle
Parking problems have grown at schools along with the size of cars and increased traffic. Here’s how experts suggest dealing with these new needs.
OVER THE YEARS, PARKING needs at K-12 schools have changed dramatically. One major change
is that cars have gotten bigger, while parking spaces have not. Spaces have,
by and large, remained the same size.
“A traditional parking stall measures 10 feet by 20 feet,” says Stephan C. Howick, RLA, LEED-AP, a landscape architect with Fanning Howey, an architectural and engineering firm with several specialties including K-12 schools and institutions of higher education.
Despite larger vehicles, a few schools
By Michael Fickes
have reduced the size of parking spaces. “Some districts have cut the size of the parking spaces down to 9-feet-by-18-feet,” continues Howick. “The State of Ohio calls for 9-feet-by-19-feet spaces.”
Liability Concerns
At some schools, drivers picking students up at the end of the day may need temporary parking spaces.
At other schools, drivers don’t park. Instead they drive by the front of the school or another designated area, and their children hop in.
Either way, school officials must make sure that the driver picking a student up is authorized to make the pickup. That is especially important for younger elemen- tary students.
Tim Armstrong, principal at the Albany Elementary School in Albany, Ky., has developed a way to tightly manage after school pick-ups by parents or designated drivers.
He describes the management problem this way: “We have 500 kids in our school, with 2,200 people authorized to pick up those children: they are married, divorced
58 SCHOOL PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / JULY/AUGUST 2017
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF FANNING HOWEY