New Parking Lot Design at Farms, Lakes Draws Positive Reviews

Several parents said they are happy with the new changes to the joint parking lot at and schools — a project designed to lessen persistent traffic jams along Taylor Road.

"For pickup, it went awesome — much, much easier than last year," said Tara Anderson, who has a kindergarten and a second-grader at Lakes.

The praise comes despite congestion Tuesday morning at Lakes, including parking on Taylor, where a large number of parents stayed longer than ususal to take first day of school pictures.

"There was a ton of us. Usually it's drive-by drop off … but the moms didn't utilize it today," said Anderson after the first day of school Tuesday. "Everybody was parked. … Everyone today was taking pictures."

Lakes Principal Lindsay Smither said Wednesday morning there was no problem, but added there still might be times parents park along Taylor, especially if it's a holiday event or bad weather.

"(Our) parent volunteer said it was a piece of cake," she said. "There was no backup. It was very, very smooth."

Smither said the district has tried but failed to have no parking signs installed by the Livingston County Road Commission. But the two-lane road is narrow and raises safety concerns especially when vehicles park on both sides. In addition, the school also continues to strongly advise parents to not park there in newsletters and other forms of communication, she said.

"We're constantly talking about safety with our kids and families," she said.

The project — which was part of $3.6 million done during the summer at both schools — provides for more room at Lakes where a front parking lot increased in size from about 10 to 50 to reduce the need for Lakes parents to park either in the joint lot or on Taylor Road.

In addition, the flow of the buses was redesigned to encourage those headed to Farms to enter on at a point between the schools but exit on the north side of the area.

"We're not interfering with the traffic (at Lakes) and the buses," said Carol Hogan, a grandmother of a fifth- and sixth-graders at Farms, while sitting in her car waiting for her child Tuesday. "You had to drive pretty defensively when it was busy. You'd come in and watch the traffic coming into Lakes. You'd have cars darting in and out. … This year, so far, so good."