Kellie Hill avoids parking in the Short North at all costs.

She wakes up early to drive from Powell to her boyfriend’s home in the University District, where she can park for free. Then, she bikes or walks 45 minutes, sometimes before the sun is up, so she can make it to work by 6:15 a.m. at Native Cold Pressed on North High Street.

If she drove the whole way to the Short North, parking on one of the residential side streets would cost her $2 an hour, and she would have to move her car every three hours. Then, there’s the risk of joining the thousands of drivers ticketed in the last two weeks since Columbus began enforcing new parking rules in the Short North.

“I’m not going to pay to come to work,” she said. “I have plenty of issues with it, but I’m pretty good at getting around things.”

New rules meant to simplify parking in the Short North and the neighborhoods that sandwich North High Street still are confounding some drivers after the city ended its grace period Feb. 19.

Columbus parking-enforcement officers wrote 2,650 tickets in the first two weeks of enforcement in the Short North, Italian Village and Victorian Village, where almost every street now requires a permit or payment via a smartphone app.

City and Short North officials expect the number of tickets to drop in the next few weeks, as people who visit the district start to better understand the rules.

The new parking rules extended the coverage area where enforcement takes place, and the city added a third shift of enforcement officers along with more restrictions. That all leads to more chances to get a ticket.

The first two weeks of enforcement also coincided with the Arnold Sports Festival, which brought more traffic to the Short North.

“Yes, we have more enforcement, absolutely. The person who got the ticket thinks we’re there all the time. It’s a small number in the grand scheme of things,” said Robert Ferrin, the city’s assistant director for parking services.

Ferrin said parking meters in the area and the ParkColumbus app had about 40,000 transactions during the first two weeks of enforcement, so the 2,650 tickets affected less than 7 percent of transactions. That also doesn’t include nearly 3,200 residential permits and 634 business permits the city has issued.

"Slowly but surely we’ve seen the streets be more utilized. We don't want empty streets. We don’t want full streets. We want the sweet spot,” Ferrin said.

The new rules eliminate almost all free parking in the Short North, Italian Village and Victorian Village. Residents and businesses can buy permits, and non-residents can pay to park at a meter or by using a smartphone app.

Hourly parking requires drivers to move their cars every three hours from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. From 10 p.m. to 8 a.m., only permit holders are allowed to park on neighborhood streets.

Parking is free on 4th Street between Greenwood and 3rd avenues, and between Warren and Goodale streets; Hunter Avenue between 3rd and 4th avenues; and 5th Avenue between Neil Avenue and Summit Street. Cars still must be moved every three hours between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. in those locations.

Parking on residential streets and at meters remains free on Sundays and on city-observed holidays.

Betsy Pandora, Short North Alliance executive director, said businesses and customers are learning the new system and more people are taking advantage of a validation system that the alliance organized for parking garages.

“This is new and with stuff that’s new it takes a little bit of time for people to get the hang of it,” she said.

Grace Satow interns at Global Gifts in the Short North. She said she has been fortunate to avoid parking problems because Global Gifts purchased passes for employees.

But she said her friends in the restaurant industry are deciding between paying for parking and continuing to work in the area.

“I think people are having a hard time adjusting because the Short North is moving toward density,” she said. “It’s good for the city to be more dense, but for individual people, it’s hard to make the switch.”

rroua@dispatch.com

@RickRouan