By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Bowling Green City Council recently approved regulations requiring buffers to beautify parking lots along Wooster and Main streets.
The ordinance sets consistent buffers for parking lots in front of businesses along the main streets of Bowling Green.
The ordinance requires businesses to provide a consistent use of stone piers, fencing and landscaping – to shield parking lots in front of establishments. The stone required mimics the stone used in the fence at City Park.
The goal is to provide a consistent look along the city’s entryways of Wooster and Main streets.
“We thought that was really critical,” Bowling Green Planning Director Heather Sayler said during the public hearing on the ordinance. The required landscaping, stone piers and fencing is intended to “soften the look” of parking lots in front of business, she said.
The regulations don’t affect residential parking.
Many communities have design regulations for streetscapes in front of businesses. Perrysburg has such requirements, Sayler said.
“It’s a new thing for Bowling Green to have a design regulation,” she said.
Since the ordinance won’t affect existing businesses, the visual impact will be a slow process – possibly taking a decade to see a transformation, Sayler said.
Council member Sandy Rowland said the ordinance is a “gentle way” of improving the look of the city’s entryways.
“I believe it’s a necessary step in the right direction,” council member Greg Robinette said.
Council member Bruce Jeffers compared it to the gradual process of getting rid of the huge business signs along East Wooster Street.
“It takes time, but it looks better,” he said.
The new buffer would be required with new construction, an addition, a building or site alteration, or a change in use that requires a site plan. It will only be applied if a parking lot is proposed within the front yard setback, or if there is an existing parking lot in the front yard setback.
This ordinance is implementing recommendations of recent planning documents created for Bowling Green. Bowling Green State University officials were also involved in addressing the aesthetics of parking lot setbacks.
