Price of parking permits may increase
Increases in Economy, B and on-campus resident parking permits may become a reality for students next fall.
The Parking Advisory Committee met Wednesday and unanimously approved the motion to recommend the permit increases to the Executive Committee.
The recommendation would increase permit prices for Economy from $15 to $18, B from $35 to $75 and would split resident into two groups – central and perimeter residents.
Permits for residents, living on South Campus, will increase from $50 to $53. However, those in perimeter housing, which includes Aggie Village, Student Living Center, West Stadium Village and the mobile home area, need only pay $35.
After three or four meetings, the committee chose this scenario because it didn’t burden one primary group, Al Lambert, Associated Students of Utah State University student advocate, said.
“None of the increases, at least for the student ones, are as high as were projected at first,” she said.
The original proposal would have raised B permits to about $103 over the next three years, Lambert said. However, this recommendation increases it to $94.
To offset the prices of permits, the price for terrace parking will increase 50 cents per hour, Lambert said.
“We did not want the resident parking permits to increase dramatically,” she said.
Parking and Transportation Services approached the committee about the increase as a means to increase revenue, Lambert said.
Currently, Parking and Transportation is in a bond with the new Student Living/Learning Center.
Lisa Leishman, director of Parking and Transportation Services, said. By 2007, Parking and Transportation Services must meet its annual bond of $380,000, which goes toward the new parking terrace, she said.
Parking and Transportation Services needs to prove it can cover long term expenses, such as the terrace and code compliances, said Paul Sampson, assistant vice president for human resources and auxiliary.
“Our current rates are somewhat artificially low. The rates don’t really cover the parking expenses in the long term,” Sampson said.
Parking and Transportation Services has not been making revenue, Lambert said. Like other auxiliary services on campus, Parking and Transportation Services is supposed to be “self sufficient.” No outside funding is allocated to this service, Leishman said.
“With the prices being so low, they haven’t really been [self-sufficient],” she said.
The other concern that prompted the recommended increase was making sure there is adequate parking on campus, Sampson said.
The new Student Living/Learning Center will incorporate a new parking terrace, he said, which increases maintenance for Parking and Transportation Services.
“A parking terrace is very expensive and doesn’t pay for itself without exceptionally high rates,” Sampson said.
The committee saw the need for increasing permits, Lambert said.
There has been an attempt to increase the permit prices in the past, she said, however, the prices have remained the same for 10 years.
During the meeting, Lambert expressed her concern about laying a lot of the burden on campus residents.
“We’re having a hard enough problem getting people to live on campus as it is,” the student advocate said.
Increases to B permits seemed reasonable, she said, because as it stands now, B permits seem to be more like “hunting permits” and “that’s difficult and isn’t particularly fair.” Lambert said she would like to see the cost of B permits increase, which may increase the value of the permit and lower the number of purchases.
If fewer B permits are purchased, then more parking spaces would be available to those who have them, she said.
This would prevent the daily hunting most B permit holders face.
Lambert said she felt uncomfortable raising the price of Economy permits because Parking and Transportation Services just allocated $3 of student fees to the shuttle system.
Lambert said she did not want to see students pay for both a high increase in the Economy permit and in student fees.
The Economy permit is for those who live far from campus, she said, and those are the students who will most likely use the shuttle system.
The Parking Advisory Committee is made up of students, faculty and members of the administration.
The Executive Committee has been informed throughout the meetings about the need for an increase and will meet later in the semester to approve or reject the decision.
For more information about the proposed permit increase, visit www.usu.edu/prm/muti/pages/parking.cfm.
-kcashton@cc.usu.edu