Urbana SD 116 board weighs parking fixes, considers rezoning grass area and a focused campus study

Students and board members flagged increasingly tight parking at Urbana High School and discussed options ranging from using underused middle-school lots to rezoning a grassy campus area to create more student parking.

The student ambassador told the board several recent winter days produced severe parking congestion that forced announcements to warn students their cars could be towed and caused students to run between classes to move vehicles. "We were talking to Guzman about the grass area next to the student lot and if that could be a possibility, to turn that into a parking lot," the student ambassador said, asking the board for feedback.

Board members responded that rezoning would require research and might involve city council action. President Pawlowski said the board would need to be briefed on legal steps to rezone and that any change should include public feedback. One board member noted that a campus land-use study completed about six years ago included parking in places but that the full safety and traffic recommendations (including new streets and a roundabout) were expensive and had not been implemented.

Speakers suggested interim options such as better coordinating with underused middle-school parking and gathering concrete counts of student drivers, staff, volunteers and passes issued to quantify demand. The board asked staff to speak with principals Guzman and Kearns and to include a parking/traffic assessment in facilities planning.

No formal action was taken; the board directed staff to research zoning requirements and return with options and data.