UNC-Chapel Hill wants to institute new permits and fees for night and satellite parking to spread the burden of rising transportation costs.
In the next five years, the university hopes to begin charging for day parking in satellite park-and-ride lots and in campus spaces at night. There's no charge for either currently, but officials say it's needed in order to meet costs expected to rise $6.1 million by 2015-16.
"We're facing some significant financial commitments," Jeff McCracken, UNC's public safety director, said Wednesday following a meeting with UNC trustees. "The real effort is to try to equitably distribute costs."
McCracken's proposal, developed with a private consultant and created with input from students and staff, would for the first time charge university workers to park in the several commuter lots around town.
Those lots, including the Friday Center lot on N.C. 54, are used heavily by UNC employees who either can't park on campus or choose not to pay to do so.
Those lots are costly to operate, McCracken said. The cost of the new parking permits would cost between $227 and $390 a year depending on the employee's salary.
McCracken acknowledged there would be some sticker shock for workers unaccustomed to paying for the park-and-ride option.
"But it is one of our most expensive endeavors," he said. "You have to have very frequent bus service or people won't use it."
Read more on this in Thursday's News & Observer.
Comments
This wouldn't be such an
Thu, 03/24/2011 - 03:09 — reasonableThis wouldn't be such an issue if more UNC employees lived in Chapel Hill / Carrboro instead of far away. What exactly has CH/C done to try to remedy that?
We want to attract retired folks in retirement communities. And we want to attract artsy folks for creativity purposes. And we want to preserve the historic districts (which inevitably consist of expensive houses that most UNC employees can't afford). And we want golf course communities (there are two golf courses within a couple miles of CH/C, one of which is in the midst of an upscale golf community that most UNC employees can't afford). And we want to preserve the historically African-American communities, even though they're not only historically African-American they're also historiclly poor, and African-Americans, like everybody else, dont't want to be poor. And as an aside, poor people of any kind generally have a tough time paying high property taxes like those in Orange County. (And yes, they pay them even if they only rent since the owners of the property naturally pass at least some of the tax on.)
And on top of all that we want to preserve as much greenery as possible and nobody can live in greenery other than non-tax paying squirrels, birds, mice and other assorted tax-evading little critters.
So where does that leave the sizable segment of people that actually work at UNC? BTW, if UNC didn't exixt then CH/C would be nothing more than a remote suburb of RTP. There was a mill in Carrboro a hundred years ago that is obselete now and pretty much nothing else here exists except as a direct or indirect result of UNC. Universities attract people. Suburbs of industrial parks don't, other than those people that work in the industrial park or those that serve their needs.
Did folks choosing the Friday Center...
Thu, 03/24/2011 - 01:01 — UNC1998Have to pay for the ride to work? If not, there's some expense. As for students... it's a privilege to have a car at school, not a right. As an aside... when I went to school there a buddy of mine paid for his parking by selling his platelets. That's a true story. When I parked at pay lots for football games it $7 or $10 (I forgot). UNC is building parking decks left and right to accommodate all the cars. As for the Rams Club... they raise funds for athletics and often return money to the school to use for financial aid for nonathletes. I guess it's just complicated.
More like this folks
Wed, 03/23/2011 - 21:18 — cbroseParking Stickers are a new stream of revenue they can tap instead of laying off the PhD tenure proffessor of 16th century European pottery. Anything to avoid cutting waste or crashing any academics retirement nests.
Pretty soon, you'll have to
Wed, 03/23/2011 - 20:26 — patmanPretty soon, you'll have to pay to work at UNC.
Progressive Parking Costs
Wed, 03/23/2011 - 19:52 — BigSharkToo funny. Only at a big lib school. The more you make, the more you pay for parking.
Why don't they extend this to the cafeterias for the staff. The more you make, the more your pay for an apple.
"The cost of the new parking permits would cost between $227 and $390 a year depending on the employee's salary."
Free ride for the RAMs' club
Wed, 03/23/2011 - 19:27 — igliigliWhen is the Rams' Club going to pay for their private parking lot?
Another means for the state to rape us of our money
Wed, 03/23/2011 - 18:48 — Steve_CrispIt never ceases to amaze me how a private developer can construct a major mall surrounded by acres of free and convenient parking, but a municipality always has to charge for any parking arrangements no matter how inconvenient it may be.
The myth of free parking
Wed, 03/23/2011 - 22:45 — newenglandSuburban malls don't charge for parking for obvious reasons. A better analogy is airports.
Parking lot is costly to operate?
Wed, 03/23/2011 - 17:44 — a7hyr64"Those lots, including the Friday Center lot on N.C. 54, are used heavily by UNC employees who either can't park on campus or choose not to pay to do so.
Those lots are costly to operate, McCracken said."
How is an unmanned free parking lot costly to operate? What operation? Paving once every ten years? Striping the spaces every five years? A sweeping truck every two weeks?
Costly? No sale.