December 3, 2003
Members Present: Paul Bixby, Thomas Censullo, Donna Daniels, Brandon Green, Reggie Houser, Jay Huneycutt, Carol Lane, David Martinson, Bill Mock, Bonnie Powell and Gary Smith. Also present were Tim King from CSD, Sheryl Haynes from ASG, Melissa Blouin from University Relations, Scott Roehrenbeck and David Deitz, students and Elaine Quinn, acting secretary.
A motion was made to accept the minutes from the October 8, 2003 meeting. It was seconded and the motion passed.
Report on Current Parking Status - Gary Smith
1. Transit ridership is up 14% this year. This is an increase of 77,850 passengers since July 1. Night fixed route ridership is up 3000%, an increase of 18,300 passengers.
2. Parking staff performed an empty space count along Razorback Road on Wednesday November 19, between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. They found 1,387 open spaces in 8 parking lots. All these lots are served by a Green Razorback Transit bus every 10 minutes or less. A count done today at 11 a.m. showed 1,349 spaces open in the same lots.
3. The increase in the unauthorized space citation to $50 is working. The number of citations for this violation has dropped by 46.5%. Between July 1 and December 2, 2002, 5,343 citations were issued. During the same time period for this year, 2,856 citations were issued.
4. Last year at the start of school we had 9,300 parking spaces. At the beginning of school this year we had about 8,300 spaces. We now have 9,026 parking spaces; almost back to the number we had at the start of school last year.
5. Work on south deck is progressing. Plans are to open 500 spaces Christmas 2004 with the rest open in April 2005. Groundbreaking on the Center for Academic Excellence will be around February 2005 and Walker Hall should break ground around April 2005.
6. Maple Street improvements will start in January.
7. The house on Virginia is down. The house on California should be down by end of month. A 37-space gravel parking lot will be constructed. The committee has already approved that those spaces as Resident Reserved.
8. The houses on Whitham and Douglas are down and plans are for a 33-space lot to be built there this spring.
9. There are plans to improve and enlarge parking lot 33 and 33A on Maple Street this spring.
10. Student Affairs is revoking parking permits for students convicted of DWI.
Old Business
1. Handicapped Parking: At the last meeting some options to improve parking for handicapped permit holders were: to allow parking in all lots, including reserved; to allow parking in all lots except Resident Reserved and last, to treat each case individually. There are currently 68 annual handicapped permits and 128 temporary handicapped permits in use. One major concern of allowing the accessible permits to park in the Reserved is that the Reserved lots are all oversold. Allowing the annual handicapped permit holders to park in any Reserved lot at any time would cause great problems. We currently have problems in lot 4 with lack of parking just for those permit holders. Another concern is misuse. Tim King from the Center for Students with Disabilities said there is no supporting documentation on misuse. Gary commented when employees at the
Administration Building found out that those with a state certification could park free all day in regular meters and the percentage of handicapped permits issued to employees in that building increased. Donna Daniels did some research after the last meeting on this subject and said one recommendation to help solve misuse was to put the individual’s birth date on the hangtag. Reggie Houser recommended that each case be decided individually by a selected few similar to All Area permit requests. David Martinson said it was more reasonable to do a case-by-case review but pointed out that there can’t be a guarantee that this would even solve all the problems. All individuals’ rights must be respected. Donna Daniels moved that a subcommittee be established to work out the best procedures to handle these requests. The motion was seconded and passed. Paul, Gary and Tim will all be on the committee. Other volunteers need to contact Paul.
2. 5. Habitual Violators: Gary had brought up this concern at the last meeting. Reggie recommended sending the violators to Judicial Board because it is considered inappropriate behavior. Brandon Green suggested that after five violations the offender be towed then sent to Judicial Board. Faculty and staff are also habitual violators in addition to students. Reggie will check with Judicial Board to see if the board would deal with habitual violators. Reggie moved to table the issue until Judicial Board was contacted. The motion was seconded and passed.
New Business
1. Hotz Traffic and Crosswalk: Some employees in Hotz have become concerned over the speed that vehicles are traveling when leaving lot 41A and exiting in front of Hotz. Several are also exiting in the wrong direction. Better signs and a crosswalk need to be installed. No motion was made for a crosswalk. Gary will check into the signage.
2. Lot 67: Lot 67 is the women’s softball field lot. HPER’s numbers have greatly increased and Bill Mock, representing HPER, is requesting that more of the Off Campus spaces in that lot become metered spaces. Several students on the committee voiced concern on the number of on campus students that park in that lot. It was decided that Gary would check to see who is parking there and also do some meter utilization reports and present the information at the next meeting.
Gary discussed a new parking plan that would be similar to a bull’s eye or zone-parking plan. It would still be a park down system and faculty and staff could purchase a commuter permit, which would allow parking along Razorback Road and riding the Green bus. Gary also advised the committee that the NW Quad parking deck is already being discussed. It will probably come on-line earlier than expected.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:15 p.m.