Web Master By a combination of factors, parking on the Hilltop campus in the past two weeks may have been more difficult than is legally permissible.
Approximately 30 construction contractors currently park their vehicles in Throop Garage daily, decreasing the available number of spaces in the garage. This week their presence began to spark complaint and debate among students, administrators, and residents of the surrounding community.
Currently, there are 5,237 parking spaces on the Hilltop campus. The city of Clayton requires in its ordinances that WU provide a minimum of 5,100 parking spaces.
Last week, when the entire North Brookings parking lot was occupied by the Thurtene carnival, WU was not meeting the requisite provision of spaces. Construction vehicles and spaces occupied temporarily by building materials complicated the situation.
The vehicles display yellow parking permits, usually reserved for students, but legally issued to the construction workers by the Department of Facilities.
According to Lisa Underwood of the Transportation Department, the majority of the contractors park at West Campus and travel to and from the Hilltop campus via shuttles. However, contractual obligations demand that a small number of permits be sold to workers by the parking department for safety reasons. Each trade involved in the construction is allowed one vehicle on campus so that in the event of an emergency transportation is immediately available.
The actual number of construction vehicles in the Throop Garage, however, is often more than 30. “Some days they might need 100 extra spaces on top of Throop garage [in order to store materials that have been delivered],” said Underwood.
The contractors buy yellow parking passes, as opposed to other parking passes, because they are one-year permits, whereas faculty-staff passes are three-year permits. This allows WU greater control over the contractors’ use of the garage, said Underwood. The contractors pay the same amount for the pass as do students.
In addition to those construction vehicles parked on campus with authorized passes, contractors have also been parking on main campus using daily passes. These passes are authorized by the parking department for specific cases, such as if an inspector is coming to view the site.
The parking department, however, has difficulties regulating the use of the daily permits. While authorized if they are sold to contractors by the Transportation Department, these permits are also for sale at the campus bookstore.
“[These are a means of] getting around the method of controlling the number of spaces available to them,” said Underwood. She went on to emphasize that her office “only allows the bare minimum of contractors to park on the Hilltop campus.”
Employees at the bookstore received instructions to question customers attempting to purchase parking passes, and to turn away those who were contractors.
In addition, problems have arisen with the illegal use of West Campus parking permits on the Hilltop, as well as fraudulent daily passes that have been tampered with so that they can be used for more than one day.
Underwood maintained that the Transportation Department “aggressively monitor[s] for contractors parking without valid permits.” She added that any construction vehicle found to be parked illegally is immediately towed.
Parking shortages on the Hilltop Campus led to controversy in 1999, when residents of neighboring areas to WU complained about the parking overflow from campus into the nearby streets. The debate was sparked by the university’s decision to cut its projected number of new parking spaces, despite the new buildings added to WU.
The administration maintained that though the university’s facilities were expanding, the number of patrons of the university would remain the same. Residents of the area disagreed, arguing that the new buildings would attract greater numbers of people to the campus, and that the campus had too few parking spaces to begin with. Administrators and community members reached a compromise, though many believed parking on campus remained too sparse.
In addition to the influx of construction workers on campus, the Thurtene Carnival also posed a detriment to the parking situation. With the northern half of the Brookings lot set aside for the carnival, patrons of the university looked elsewhere to park, forcing some to park on off-campus streets, angering community residents.
While the presence of construction vehicles on campus has cramped parking, the Transportation department has been making an effort to balance the needs of students with the needs of contractors.
“We’re working hard to make sure we’re staying on top of these sorts of issues,” said Underwood. “This has been a concern. We understand that it’s frustrating for people parking on campus.