Shades Valley Community Church opens paid public parking lot

UPDATE: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated proceeds from the lot would be given to the West Homewood Neighborhood Association. A portion of the money will go to the association, with the rest paying for maintenance of the lot. The Star regrets the error.

Those looking for public parking in West Homewood now have another option besides street parking.

The staff at Shades Valley Community Church recently approved making the church’s parking lot at 160 Oxmoor Road a paid lot, charging $5 for two hours of parking.

Grant Premo with the church said with businesses like Pizzeria GM and The Little London nearby, the surrounding neighborhood has changed over the years. Because of that, the parking lot, which has about 170 spaces, gets a lot of usage.

Shades Valley Community Church is a “smaller church” and does not have the resources to maintain a parking lot that receives as much use as theirs does, Premo said. Cars and trailers have been left, along with food trucks. People have interrupted Bible studies to ask people to move their cars, and there has been debris and trash left on the lot, Premo said. The lot also sees use as the home of the West Homewood Farmer’s Market.

Premo said the church hired a property parking lot management company that advised them on what they could do to make it safer, and they decided to charge a small fee to better serve the community.

“It hurts somebody when you leave cars here over time,” Premo said. “It has value for the community and the church.”

A portion of the money that the church collects from the lot will be given back to the West Homewood Neighborhood Association, Premo said, with the rest dedicated to maintaining the lot.

“We’re really excited about it,” he said. “It will be great to keep it open.”