The ground has broken on the HHS parking lot expansion project, adding 156 total spots to the campus. Class sizes are increasing for the next few years, and parking is needed to accommodate these classes.

“It’s such a necessity to a community with student drivers,” said Dr. Justin Hefner, Homewood City Schools Superintendent.

Alongside the beginning of the second semester, the North parking lot is under construction by the gym, adding 47 new parking spaces. Dr. Joel Henneke, HHS principal, says that it will be 5 to 6 more weeks of construction on North parking, as of early March.

The North parking lot will connect to the parking lot in front of the school. It is currently unknown if this will impact the flow of carpools.

Hefner says they hope to begin the project’s next phase in March, adding 109 spaces to South parking and extending the blue and gray tiered parking lots. This project will add another entrance and exit to both tiers, improving traffic flow.

Students who park in these lots have been notified about the changes and moved to other lots for the remainder of the school year. All gray-tier students will be relocated to Samford parking, and most blue parking to the North lot. The blue tier has been given specific directions. 

Over the weekend, the gray lot and part of the blue lot will be closed off to move in construction equipment.

The South parking lot is expected to finish before school resumes in August.

When both expansions are completed, there will be enough parking spaces for all driving juniors and seniors and the possibility for some sophomores to have a parking spot. 

“We are maximizing everything that we can, safely from an environmental standpoint [and] efficiently from an environmental and cost standpoint,” said Hefner.

Hefner says they consulted biologist Sam Ford, who does work around Homewood and knows the city well. He says that they said that the project would have little to no impact on Shades Creek or the wetlands around the north side of the school. 

“We committed to this space, and we just want to provide as adequate facilities and parking as we can,” said Hefner.