If you don't want a bollard to protect the column you can always do an encasement (concrete or metal), or you can do a concrete post up to about 3'-0" or so with the wood post on top of that. I doubt it would come up with the building dep't (they're strictly reviewing fire/life safety for code compliance) but it's a best practices thing that you might want to consider...
Every garage door I've ever seen eventually gets doinked, same goes for poles, building corners, etc. A warehouse I did some work on once had forklifts running all over the place - one of those guys actually put the metal fork of a forklift THROUGH the web of a wide-flange steel column (!) Point is, stuff eventually gets hit. It's a good idea to protect it.
I have a basic bollard detail - just a 6" dia. steel pipe filled with concrete that goes down into an augered hole in the ground about 3'-0". I can dig the detail out and send it to you if you want. A pipe bollard might look like crap in a residential application though, but it's a starting point...
Or maybe I'm just being paranoid and overdesigning it... I've been known to do that on occasion too.
