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Parking quest continues
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Despite the parking garage and the many lots scattered throughout the campus, a majority of students and staff members continue to think parking is a problem at BSU.
School officials are continuing the search for more surface property for general parking.
“We have a very limited amount of money that can be used for property acquisition, so it is hard to make more general parking spots. We are constantly on the lookout for areas that could be used for parking,” said Larry Blake, BSU director of facilities planning.
Currently, the master plan for the University’s expansion includes four additional parking garages. One of those has already been built, but three more could be constructed in the future.
The last plan for additional buildings was made in 1996. This plan will probably be revised in later years. Plans for the new parking garages could change depending on the demand that is seen.
“We have to really analyze the demand for more parking before we make any decisions. There is no point in building more parking garages if we are not sure they will be utilized,” Blake said.
The parking garage across from the Morrison Center is the latest solution to Boise State’s parking problems. The garage was originally created for visitor parking, but in the first semester of last year, it was only filling to half of its capacity with visitors.
“We were getting a lot of heat because all of these students with general permits were parking in the garage because they couldn’t find anywhere else to park, but it meant they were paying twice the normal amount to park,” Blake said.
“As a result, at the beginning of second semester we sold reserved permits for about half of the garage’s capacity and this year we sold even more, which definitely seemed to help. About three-quarters of the reserved permits were sold to students.”
Currently, these reserved permits cost $143 for a student whereas a general permit is only $52.
Blake said although it suggestions have been made to open the lot to general permit holders, it is unrealistic. The garage cannot be open to general permits because it would not be equitable enough to cover the costs that were incurred when it was built.
Blake said each space costs about $6,000 after breaking down the total costs of construction and must slowly be paid off.
The only revenue for this comes from parking permits and fines, which is why permit prices have been slowly increasing through the years. He said there is no other way of obtaining funds to improve parking except by making these additional charges.
Blake said the additional parking garages will be placed on the perimeter of the campus rather than internally. The second garage is currently planned for south of the Student Union Building at the corner of Lincoln and University.
There is no design work being done yet though, because the need for more reserved or visitor parking must be determined before any decisions are made.
Other options are also being evaluated at this time, such as the possibility of getting federal funds for some different means of transportation and parking.
Blake said, “we are looking at every possible way to offset the costs so we can make BSU’s parking system as efficient as possible.”
Ashley Gettings