Parking Structure discussed

By Courtney Jay

TCU students will have more parking when a structure is built. Did we mention it won't be in the near future?

Plans for a much sought after parking garage on campus are ready to be approved this year, a university official said.

Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Don Mills said an updated master plan, with proposed locations for a parking garage, has been submitted to the board of trustees for approval.

“I think the first phase of the master plan is generally considered five to six years and I think there would be a parking garage in that first phase,” Mills said

This semester, 150 parking spots were lost when construction began on the new admissions building. Marlon Figueroa, president of the Student Government Association said students voiced concerns about the closing of the lot on Stadium Drive.

“I’ve definitely heard students ask me, ‘Why did that happen?’ and ‘Now I have to walk more,’ but again, we’re working on it in the sense of the shuttle,” Figueroa said. “It’s really out of our reach to put on more parking spaces.”

Mills said the campus was notified of the lot closure before Christmas.

In a Dec. 17 e-mail from DeAnn Jones, coordinator of parking and transportation services for the TCU Police Department, said the lot would close Dec. 20 until completion of the admissions building.

Mills said the biggest issue with building a parking garage is funding.

According to a 2002 Skiff article, plans for a parking garage were put on indefinite hold by the board of trustees because of the estimated $5.5-$7.5 million cost.

Mills said increasing parking fees was up for discussion.

“We did a survey a few years ago,” Mills said. “We asked students if they’d like a parking garage. Of course they all said yes and then [we] said would you pay more to be able to use a parking garage and they all said no. So it’s always an issue of how things get paid for.”

Mills said increasing parking fees will continue to be discussed because a garage isn’t in the campaign budget. But he said the garage would probably be funded by general operating funds.

“There isn’t fundraising for a parking garage in the campaign for TCU,” Mills said. “Typically in a campaign, you’re able to raise funds for buildings that are a little sexier than a parking garage like a union or a Scharbauer Hall or something like that.”

Mills said when a garage is built, it won’t be a basic parking garage.

“If we wanted to build a parking garage that fit in with the other buildings on the outside and was attractive, then the costs go up just depending on how much you want,” Mills said. “And I would want a parking garage that had a lot of cameras, lots of lights. On some campuses, they put the police department inside a parking garage and I think we’d want to consider that as well.”

Figueroa said there are many ideas on ways to keep a garage safe.

“It won’t just be a box of parking spaces,” he said. “There are so many dangers that can happen at night. We don’t want anyone getting raped or mugged or anything like that. So it’s really cool that the way they’re planning it, it should be more of an interactive place where they’ll maybe have a food place or something where there’s always something going on, people walking around. So it’s not just a dark alley or dark places in the parking garage and there’ll be a lot of security.”

Mills said proposed locations for a garage include area west of the stadium and on the east side of campus along West Berry Street.

See what SGA President Marlon Figueroa has to say about parking at http://blip.tv/file/3180429