Executive Council mulls possible parking changes
A sensitive and frustrating topic to many students was discussed at the USU Student Association Executive Council’s public meeting on Tuesday – parking.
A presentation was given by Director of Parking and Transportation James Nye, Executive Director of Housing Steve Jensen and Assistant Director of Parking and Transportation Joe Izatt. Nye said changes needed to happen because of new buildings on campus.
“Anytime you change something on one side of the campus, it affects the other side of the campus,” Nye said.
He showed the council on a map which parking areas would be affected when the new recreation building and the Wayne Estes Center are finished. Because of access to the Wayne Estes center, 12 stalls will be lost on 800 East. The Black permit parking lot south of the Spectrum will also be lost.
“It’s human behavior to park as close to the event site as possible,” Nye said. “We need to make a plan. We have to have a plan for this whole section of campus.”
Changes he suggested include making the Big Blue Terrace 24 hours and changing the Blue Premium lot. He also wants to open the Red permit parking lot – where the old agriculture building used to be – after 6 p.m., opening up 86 stalls.
“It’s like standing in front of the firing squad to talk about making this 24 hours,” Jensen said. “It has got to happen. If we don’t do that, it’ll fill up and then we’re in trouble. We need to really start looking ahead. I know this building is 18 months down the road. We’d like to try and solve some of those problems before they happen.”
Nye said he’s open to ideas about the Blue Premium permit lot. He mentioned extending the limit to two and a half hours or three, or opening it up after 6 p.m. Because there are various ideas, he’s sending a parking survey to all students, faculty and staff by the end of the week or early next week. Student Advocate Vice President Daryn Frischknecht and Executive VP Emily Esplin contributed questions to the survey.
“We’re going to work tirelessly to make sure this works smoothly, that your events are taken care of,” Nye said about the Big Blue Terrace. “We’ve even said for the first year, we’d document the usage. It’d be free of charge and then we’ll sit down to see if there’d be an appropriate charge. We need to know who’s using the facility.”
Another change he suggested is increasing the student fee for Aggie Shuttle by $1, extending the evening service two hours to 9:30 p.m. Nye said it could possibly help with the parking that happens with programming events.
Few questions were asked by the council. Frischknecht asked about clarification of the proposed changes and Student Involvement and Leadership Executive Director Linda Zimmerman asked about the Big Blue Terrace being open on Saturday.
Nye said the terrace would likely open up at 7 p.m. on Friday and stay open through Saturday.
He also talked about the importance of the revenue parking and transportation generates.
“The one thing you need to realize is 10 percent of our revenue goes back to students in the form of scholarships,” Nye said. “About $140,00 a year gives back to students for scholarships.”
All three parking representatives stressed the idea of making changes now to prevent future problems.
“We’re trying to create a longer term vision,” Izatt said. “Too many times we’ve been making short term decisions. That’s really the thrust of what we’re doing here. Let’s be a visionary and look to the future.”
The council also changed discussed changing their meeting next week because of Thanksgiving break. The meeting was rescheduled to 7 a.m. Monday, Nov.
25.
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