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Earlier this year, drivers were feeling headaches from trying to find a parking space. Now that the initial shock of a new school year has worn off, students and staff must brace themselves for winter driving.
Since the start of the school year, 50 parking spaces have been added. There is a total of 6,053 parking spaces, with 2,262 resident spaces, 2389 commuter spaces, and 1402 staff and faculty spaces. There have been 8,157 parking permits sold so far, with 2468 resident permits, 3249 commuter permits, and 2440 faculty and staff permits.
For every parking space, there are 1.3 parking permits.
Right now, a lot near Orchard Hall is under construction. When it is completed, it will add several new resident parking spaces, but the two temporary resident lots will close. The completion of the Orchard lot is dependent on the weather. The asphalt has to be laid down when the surface is dry. If the weather clears up, the lot could be finished in as soon as two weeks, said Anita Wihry, director of Facilities Management.
Currently there are three temporary resident lots and one temporary faculty and staff lot open. One faculty and staff lot between Donald P. Corbett Hall and Neville Hall has closed due to drain clogging. When the Orchard Lot is completed, two resident parking lots will close, and the third lot will be converted to a faculty and staff lot.
“I think if we look at what is creating problems for us right now, it is the new lot [at Orchard] being finished. If it had been finished in august, we would not have had the same problems for availability,” said Parking Services Manager Paul Paradis.
Paradis said he does not think there is a difference in this year’s parking situation.
“I don’t think it’s any worse than previous years . . . It’s pretty close to being the same numbers [of permits being sold],” Paradis said The perception is changing because we no longer have the Stevens lot.”
He mentioned that the reason why drivers might be feeling the parking crunch is because that even though Stevens lot was a faculty staff parking lot, many students tried to park there. Stevens lot had the most parking violations, he said.
The temporary lots are muddy, said Paradis. If people become stuck in the mud during business hours, they should call Parking Services to arrange with Facilities Management to get their car out. If a car becomes stuck after business hours, they should call public safety, who can arrange for the car to be towed. So far because of the rain, parking services has pulled out about 10-12 cars and had only had to pay a wrecker one or two times.
Since early September, the Alumni Hall parking lot has opened again. The Stevens Hall lot is still under construction with the new engineering building, and will not be completed until next summer. When it is completed, there will no longer be a faculty parking lot in that area. There will, however, be a small visitor lot.
Commuters and staff will face new parking challenges with the coming of winter. On November 1, no car with a faculty and staff, commuter or perimeter permit can park in their respective lots between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m. Exceptions are made for people who are required to stay at the university overnight regularly and retrieve a pass from parking services. There are also three overnight commuter lots available, one being at Hilltop, one being at the Nutting lot, and one being in the north corner of the Steam Plant lot.
Faculty and staff, commuter, and perimeter lots are cleaned on a storm-by-storm basis, but in the resident lots only the lanes are plowed. During break, if a resident wants to leave his or her car at the university, he or she must part her car in the designated area, which will be available in the FirstClass folder, said Paradis.
Wihry expects to loose some paking spots during the winter storm season.
“We will probably lose some spaces immediately after a storm,” Wihry said. “With the man power and equipment [Facilities Management] has, it takes a couple days to plow away the storm in the parking lots.”
“We are looking at additional options that can be developed during the next construction season,” Wihry said when asked what might be done to improve the parking crunch. Possibilities include paving over the temporary lots into permanent lots, she said.
“There are issues with parking, but it’s not problems,” said Paradis. “There are still 30-40 spaces available nightly.”
