$19 Million to Reduce Parking Shortage

BY EARLE SIMPSON
STAFF WRITER

In about 18 months time, the students, faculty and staff of the BC Central Campus will get a parking garage after years of suffering the inconveniences of parking space shortage and flooding.

“The garage will have approximately 1000 parking spaces, and the students will not pay anymore than they are currently paying,” announced Francisco Hoyos, BC Business Affairs Dean. The new garage is, in part, the solution to the age old problem of flooding in the campus’s parking areas. “It has been like that for over 30 years,” responded John Stancil, Central Campus former Dean of Business, in answer to how long has the problem been around.

But flooding is not the only problem faced by users of the parking lots. According to William Pennell, BC VP Facilities, in a letter to the President of the college, “the campus regularly has a shortage of parking spaces available during peak classroom hours.” In fact in an attempt to combat this shortage, during peak hours students regularly park on grass adjourning parking lots.

There are approximately 18,000 students on the Central Campus of BC but according to John Thornton, Central Campus Business Affairs Dean, “there are currently a total of 4380 parking spaces on Central Campus, 540 of which are overflow spaces organized in five lots.” The five overflow lots are a recent response to the shortfall but Thornton is mindful that the solution to the parking space shortage is far from being met. “Between now and October 6, we are hoping to create at least an additional overflow lot,” he added.

But the overflow lots are not expected to be a long term solution. “Approximately three weeks ago, the board approved the design/build contract and we will break ground for the project by the 3^rd of October this year,” said Juan Raigosa, Construction Project Administrator. Following the ground breaking, the project will commence and run until March 2010 when it will be completed. “It’s about an 18-month completion process,” confirmed Hoyos.

The garage will be built at a cost of $19.2 million which will be funded by a board approve state bond issue. According to Pennell’s letter, the bond will be repaid with the use of the “transportation and access fees as well as Capital Investment Fees (CIF).” Hoyos said that the board has approved the bond and now it’s just a matter of “breaking grounds if everything goes well and we get our drainage permits.”

The garage will be located on the right of the College Avenue and south of the 30^th Avenue entrance. Although the garage with its 1000 parking spaces will not solve the shortage nor the flooding problems, especially in the parking areas located on the east side of the campus, according to Pennell’s letter, it will “sit on land that is currently parking 136 cars, so the college will pick up a net additional 839 parking spaces with the construction of this new garage,” and that is expected to blunt the two problems but most of all, students will have the convenience of parking in the new facilities at the expense of the flood prone areas.