LM’s student population has been growing for years, but the number of student parking spots provided by the administration remains stagnant. The current grade population averages out to approximately 450 students per class, but only fifty spots are available for seniors in the highly competitive parking raffle each year. The lack of parking spots at LM has been an issue for years. However, in the past few months, it has caused neighborhood wide controversy and tension amongst the student body.
The extremely minimal student parking provided by the school has led students to park in the surrounding areas, one of which is Suburban Square. Although this seemed to be a good solution for seniors, it was short lived. Suburban Square employees quickly began cracking down on student parking because it takes away spots for employees and consumers in Suburban Square. According to Alexa Saler ’25, a Suburban Square employee will ask each car going to park in the lots in the mornings about their intentions for parking. She says it is clearly “in relation to the students overpopulating the garage,” This belief was reinforced by an email sent by Director of Activities and Athletics, Jason Stroup, saying “LMHS was contacted by Suburban Square today. They are going to begin ticketing and/or towing cars that are parked there illegally (which includes people not shopping or working there).” While some seniors feel this reaction is understandable because of the high volume of students looking to park in Suburban Square, many agree that the extremely limited options lead them to have to resort to this parking solution. Saler’s perspective on the matter illustrated how this reaction feels very personal to LM students and is frustrating to have to deal with.
In response to this new regulation, many students gravitate towards parking in the surrounding neighborhood. The closest streets to the school, like Owen Road, are filled with two hour parking or no parking signs. The volume of signs like these has steadily increased over the past few months in response to the influx of student use. These signs make houses in this area unpopular among students. Subsequently, there has been newfound activity in a formally more secluded area. About a ten minute walk from the school lies the neighborhood across Penn Road, where there are no two hour parking limits. Many students park in this approximate two block stretch of untimed street parking, in an effort to avoid getting ticketed. This was a well functioning solution until the word got out. Parking in this neighborhood is now much more competitive and the street fills up quickly. Students consistently have to arrive to park at least thirty minutes before school even starts in order to obtain a legal parking spot. Anna Schmittdiel ’26 says parking in that area “causes extra stress to my day because people who live there sometimes come outside and yell at us or are just generally annoyed.” Schmittdiel’s remarks exemplify how this issue creates strife between the people who live in the neighborhood and the students.
People who live in the neighborhood are not united on this issue. The few families in the area who do have high school students are often used as scapegoats for this issue; they are blamed for bringing the student parking to the area. Some residents have taken a very hostile stance towards student parking, going as far as keeping a spreadsheet of license plates of cars consistently parked in the area and leaving angry notes on cars. “Consider this warning before the next step of calling LMPD and having you ticketed,” and “obnoxious!” are just some of the confrontational notes that students, including Laila Miller ’26, have received on their cars. In addition to these notes, many angry text messages and emails were sent by angry neighbors to the families of LM students in the area telling them to stop the student parking. Towards the end of the 2023-24 school year, the issue was reported to spiral out of control. Neighbors were calling the cops on a daily basis about the amount of cars parked. They were having officers patrol the area to see if it would qualify for two hour parking. These extreme efforts were mostly shut down by the police, who would only ticket cars with serious parking violations, such as blocking a driveway or being very far from the curb. This ambitious group was successful in obtaining four hour parking signs in a small stretch of the area.
Although the original reaction to student parkers was somewhat hostile, the neighbors seem to have dialed back their response during this school year. It has been reported that some still park in the streets instead of their driveways to block student parking, but many have accepted the situation. Current requests via a note from neighbors are to “Please park on one side of the street only,” as well as to, “not park opposite a driveway,” and to, “make sure that you are not parked too close to the corners [of the streets].” These are reasonable requests, however, many students are still frustrated by the insistence of neighbors and do not see why it is an issue to park.
The matter of student parking does not seem to have a close end. If anything, it may become an even bigger problem as more staff are hired to counter the increasing number of LM students. Carpools may appear to be the only option for students looking to come to school using a mode of transportation other than the bus. Community pushback evidently leaves many hopeful that the administration will create more parking opportunities at LM.
