Some UC Davis monthly parking rates will rise 36 percent over the next four years to help the university's parking division pay for the construction of a new 1,500-space structure on the west side of campus.
Over the next few years, Transportation and Parking Services also will overhaul and build several new parking lots. The new spaces will provide parking for the growing number of faculty and staff members and students expected at the university, said TAPS director Cliff Contreras.
These proposals and more, eyeing transportation scenarios on campus through 2005, are found in TAPS' Long Range Access Plan, released last week. The plan also discusses upcoming programs for students and employees who ride their bikes, carpool or take transit to campus.
In a draft plan issued last fall, TAPS laid out its proposals through 2010. This time, officials decided on a shorter time frame.
"We believe that as the campus develops its Long Range Development Plan (which looks at adding more on-campus housing for employees and students) we should not go out any further at this time," Contreras said. "In 2005, TAPS will lead a campus effort to re-evaluate the access plan to determine the type - surface or structure - and number of parking spaces the campus will need to construct to meet its access requirements," he said.
Under the TAPS plan released May 28, the cost of monthly campus "A" permits will rise $15 between the 2002-03 and 2005-06 academic years. "C" permits will increase $12. Currently, an A long-term permit costs $41 a month, while a C permit costs $33 a month.
The price of visitor permits will rise from $4 to $5 a day next year, but there are no plans for that cost to rise again over the next three years. UC Davis' low-cost "L" long-term permit will go from $17 to $19 a month in 2002-03. Carpool rates - ranging from $6 to 14 a month - will not increase.
Staff Assembly Chair Laura Townsley, who met with Contreras last fall to discuss the plan, said she was disappointed with the hikes. She feels they are out proportion with the merit increases employees have recently received.
"I know it's a disincentive for driving," Townsley said, "but there are a lot of us who aren't able to use carpools or alternative forms of transportation."
Contreras said he expected the hikes would be unpopular, but, unfortunately, they are necessary for TAPS - which does not receive federal or state subsidies - to pay for the new structure, expected to cost $36 million.
"Caution is exercised in establishing parking rates," Contreras said. "A reasonable balance is sought between the need for a financially viable parking program and campus access considerations."
The garage, which is now being designed, will be built on top of temporary lot 45, just south of the Police and Fire Building and north of Hutchison Drive. The facility is scheduled to open in January or February 2005. Construction will begin next spring.
When TAPS received feedback on the draft access plan, organizations like the Staff Assembly, Academic Senate and the Associated Students of UC Davis said, to ease the parking crunch, their members would prefer TAPS build a new parking structure rather than opting for slightly lower-cost alternatives such as building satellite lots and shuttling drivers to the center of the campus.
"I thought it would be cost, but it was convenience that was most important to the customers," Contreras said.
The plan also calls for lot 54, off Health Sciences Drive, to be resurfaced and landscaped. A new parking area, lot 56, will be constructed south of lot 54 and will serve visitors to the new aquatic center being built nearby. Lots 53 and 55 in the area will also be expanded. The total price tag on the improvements is $1.7 million.
The permit increases associated with the lot and garage construction might have been higher if TAPS and the university administration had not agreed to a new lot replacement policy pushed for by the Academic Senate and Staff Assembly, Contreras said. Under the plan, the campus will reimburse TAPS for certain parking facilities that are displaced when the university decides to construct a building on that lot. Previously TAPS paid for replaced lots.
The costs of several lots and structures already built were also included in the agreement. TAPS would be reimbursed more than $27 million if all the lots were ever displaced.
The access document also includes the campus's first bike plan and proposals for Unitrans fleet expansion and maintenance improvement through 2006. (Dateline will detail those projects in an upcoming issue.)
The access plan also calls for the revival of a campus transportation and parking advisory group composed of faculty and staff members and graduate and undergraduate students. The committee, which last met in the early 1990s, will hold its first meeting later this month.
The TAPS plan may be reviewed at the reserved reading room at Shields Library, the Yolo County Library's Davis branch and at the TAPS office. The plan also is available online at www.taps.ucdavis.edu