According to Principal John Williams, the city is going to start enforcing a three-hour ordinance on the public parking garages in downtown Carmel due to many students from this school parking there and taking up all the parking places. Failure to comply will result in a car being ticketed or towed.

“We have a fair amount of kids who park at the parking garage downtown and then they walk which is probably the same distance as the trail, but I think kids feel like they can get in and out faster. It’s a public parking garage, but they’re filling it up, so the merchants in that area are not happy,” Williams said. “The city’s going to start enforcing a three-hour ordinance, in other words, between the hours of 6 a.m. and 5 p.m., you can only park there for three hours. It’s always been the rule but now they’re going to start enforcing it. If you park there for over three hours, your car could be ticketed or towed.”

Williams said that it is a similar issue with the parking at the Carmel Clay Public Library.

“Some of our kids park in the library’s parking lot. Again, that’s private and our kids shouldn’t be doing that, but it’s not a school thing. We can’t police them. It’s a Carmel Library issue. They have a responsibility of supervising that and enforcing that,” he said.

Morgan Montgomery, Senate member and senior, said she understands why it’s important for the city to regulate this. She herself parks on a school parking lot with her parking pass but said she knows people who park at the parking garage.

“Even though the walks are about the same, I think people think that (parking at the parking garage) is not as bad as walking the trail,” she said. “If we’re already not supposed to park there, then it makes that they’re trying to enforce the law that people have been breaking.”