Providing parking spaces at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has been a juggling act in recent years, with Parking and Transit Services working not to drop the ball.
UNL lost 500 parking spaces from last year to construction projects. But parking services issued only 100 fewer parking permits. With each surface parking permit costing $360 this year, that’s a potential $36,000 loss for the university, assuming students would have wanted to purchase the permits had they been available.
Most likely, students would have purchased them because there were still 400 people on the waiting list for permits once the lots had filled.
Two hundred additional parking spots were scrounged from the 17th and R and 14th and Avery parking garages to accommodate these students. In the Stadium Drive garage, 140 additional commuter permits were issued along with 80 permits between the Sandoz and North 17th Street parking lots.
But some students were still left permit-less.
Although there were fewer parking permits issued this year, the cost of each permit increased by $2.50 a month, costing $20 for the entire academic year. Eighty percent of the increase, or $16, is used as a savings to pay for any potential loss while building the 19th and Vine streets garage.
Dan Carpenter, director of Parking and Transit Services, is optimistic about this year’s parking permit revenue.
“Given the adjustments in permits issued in the different areas, I do not anticipate that Parking and Transit Services lost any revenue,” Carpenter said. “Rather, we should expect an increase in revenue due to this year’s permit fee increase.”
So revenue is good, but what about UNL students? Sammy Nabulsi, a junior political science major at UNL and president of the Residence Hall Association, is looking for a representative to serve on the Parking Advisory Committee as a student voice.
“Parking, for god knows how many years, has been an awful situation,” Nabulsi said. “The problem is with all the construction and growth of the university, buildings have begun taking over parking spots.”
The Parking Advisory Committee does not only deal with the space issue, Nabulsi said.
“Even if we have a lot of spaces available, there are always things that can be changed with parking policy, and there’s the issue of visitor parking,” Nabulsi said. “I’ve been here three years, and I still don’t know where to send my family and friends to park.”
Although some projects will soon be completed, thus alleviating the crowded parking situation temporarily, Nabulsi said this isn’t a problem that will ever completely be resolved.
If the university passes a referendum for new health and recreation centers, the buildings would be constructed on existing parking lots. This way the old facilities could remain functional until the new ones are ready for use.
The 19th and Vine streets garage, which will be completed before next school year, will have 1,040 spaces within the structure and 60 spaces available on the surface north of the garage. The construction at the Court Street perimeter parking lot south of the Devaney Center, which will add 250 spaces to the UNL parking space inventory, is also nearing completion.
The cost for the new parking permits will be the same as the rest of the permits. A 19th and Vine garage permit will cost $450, which is the same as the ones for the 17th and R and 14th and Avery garages. Surface parking permits will cost $360 each.
After the difficulties of the past few years, it should soon be easier to obtain a permit, Carpenter said.
“We should be able to accommodate most requests for next year,” he said.
ELLENHIRST@DAILYNEBRASKAN.COM
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