A proposal presented to the University’s Parking Advisory Committee this week would slash the price of parking in the now under-used C-Lot off North Hillside Road for both resident and commuter students, possibly allow students with fewer than 54 credits to park there, and equalize the cost of student permits campus-wide.
The committee will meet again in late January or early February to act on the proposal.
“We’re looking at a range of parking strategies both for the short term and the long term,” says William Wendt, UConn’s director of transportation, logistics, and parking services, who made the proposal. “It’s no secret that lots closer to the center of campus – the prime parking spaces – are oversubscribed and often very tight, while more distant lots like C remain almost completely empty. We want to see all our parking utilized.”
Each day there are an estimated 500 empty spaces in C-Lot – even after the loss of X-Lot earlier this semester.
Wendt proposes cutting the cost of a C-Lot permit for both resident and commuter students to $50, while equalizing the cost of student and resident parking permits in other lots so that all students pay $110 for permits. Currently, commuters pay $86 and residents pay the higher rate.
One goal is to promote C-Lot as a “storage lot.”
“You have students who live on campus who may not drive their car at all for days at a time, but are occupying the more coveted spaces, while commuters who drive every day are sometimes forced to park in a more distant lot,” says Wendt. “Slashing the cost of parking in C is an incentive for resident students to park their car there if it usually sits idle for days. That would open up more spaces for commuters, while saving residents money.”
If commuting students were reluctant to pay as much as $110 for a parking permit, they would also have the far cheaper option of buying a $50 permit for C-Lot.
“This will help address the larger issue of cost as it relates to location,” says Wendt. “Right now, a student who parks in a prime spot right next to their building pays the same as someone who parks in the most remote parking place on campus, which doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
The proposal would also make it possible for students with fewer than 54 credits to park in C-Lot.
Currently, in order to park a car in a university lot, a student either has to be a commuter or have more than 54 credits – a rule that essentially bars most freshmen and sophomores who live on campus from parking their car in a UConn lot. Those affected can either leave their car at home or pay to park in an invariably more expensive private lot off campus.
“We have a lot of students who need to travel off campus for work, internships, extracurricular activities, and philanthropic service,” says Wendt. “Not having a car on campus or having to pay a high rate for private parking makes that more difficult. We’re not certain that the 54-credit rule makes sense any longer.”
Wendt proposes allowing students with fewer than 54 credits to purchase the $50 C-Lot parking permits, if students with more than 54 credits still do not fill all the spaces after the proposed changes are enacted.
“Opening C-Lot to resident students with fewer than 54 credits would help with the issues that have been identified and fill the currently vacant spaces,” he says, adding that a portion of UConn’s student population, such as military veterans, may have enrolled at UConn later in life than the average 18-year-old freshman.
“You could have a scenario where a freshman living on campus is 24 years old, has just served in the military, possibly in Iraq or Afghanistan, and Parking Services is telling them they can’t park their car on campus and instead provides them with a list of higher-priced off-campus vendors. I wouldn’t blame them for being incredulous about that,” says Wendt.
Because there are still a finite number of spaces, rather than opening C-Lot to all those with fewer than 54 credits, Parking Services is considering a multi-tier system for C, says Wendt. For example, if Parking Services determines that there are still 250 unused spaced in the lot even after students with more than 54 credits have had the chance to buy a C-Lot permit, then they may offer parking permits to those with fewer than 54 credits. Wendt said they would likely first offer them to students who are older than 21, then to students with more than 30 credits, then to those with fewer than 30 – or until all 250 hypothetical spaces were filled.
Wendt says the proposed changes are short-term steps that are part of a longer-term parking strategy.
“Rather than having rigid rates regardless of location, we’re considering the possibility of charging a rate based on location and demand for the space throughout the campus,” he says. “This would create a system whereby the best spots cost the most and the less desirable spots cost the least. We want to incorporate a degree of flexibility into our rates. That’s an incentive to fill the spaces and make the parking process a smoother one.”
Wendt notes that this would help reduce and improve traffic flow on campus, since many students would go automatically to their designated lot, rather than scouring lots closer to the center of campus in search of the best parking.
In order to compensate for the distances from some outlying lots to the center of campus, shuttle bus service would have to be stepped up, he adds.
Wendt says the changes regarding C-Lot, if enacted, would begin as soon as the next academic year. A full plan to include remote parking at the edges of the campus would be introduced over a longer period of time. For now, it is still a work in progress.
“Students should stay tuned,” he says. “When we make any change, we’ll make sure we have plenty of discussion around the issue before we announce it. Parking has always been a discussion trigger on any campus.”
Students can send feedback to Parking Services regarding the plan for C-Lot by writing to parkingservices@uconn.edu.
Wendt says that faculty and staff parking also needs improvement, but that the issues surrounding student parking are the first priority.
