Parking lot to open in fall
By Sarah Krebs
Staff Reporter

Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Don Mills said TCU is looking at property to provide additional parking, which will be developed over the summer.

Mills and TCU Police Chief Steve McGee said the parking lot at the corner of Bowie Street and Lubbock Avenue will open by next fall, helping to decrease parking problems. He said at this time they are not sure how many spaces the lot will create.

Mills said as TCU develops with the Berry Street Initiative project, a parking garage is expected to play a major part, but to not expect the garage for at least a year and a half.

“Ultimately, we are going to have to be a more pedestrian campus,” Mills said. “We can’t build parking adjacent to everything.”

Mills said the university might increase the price of reserved parking for faculty and staff by 25 percent to better utilize the lots we have.

In the past, McGee said TCU has re-zoned the parking permits and started the bus service from Worth Hills to ensure commuter students and faculty only would be allowed to park on east campus.

“We actually have a group that gave out a commuter concerns survey and we asked if provided with a bus, would they park behind the Coliseum, and about 99 percent said ‘no’,” McGee said. “It really astonished us that this many people said ‘no’, so we didn’t explore that idea.”

Maureen Davis, a junior photo and studio art major, said people are always going to find something to complain about.

Davis, a commuter, said a parking garage probably would not be very helpful because it would likely have to be fairly far away from east campus.

“Where are they going to put a garage?” Davis said. “I mean it’s probably going to be far away like the Freshman Lot.

“At the same time it would be nice to know that you could leave 10 minutes before class, and find a parking spot and still have enough time to walk to class,” she said. “It’s the driving around looking for the space that eats your time.”

Ashley Beale, a sophomore fashion design and merchandising major, said she is concerned about the neighborhoods restricting parking because there are not a lot of spaces for students to park, especially for commuters.

“There is the lot, but you have to circle around and if there isn’t a place, then where do you park?” Beale said.

Beale said she did not understand why TCU has a new parking lot planned but won’t build a garage on that space.

“It might be a bit of an eyesore, but it just seems like a big waste of space,” she said.

Mills said administrators are doing everything they can to appease both neighborhood residents and students, faculty and staff.

“We are very supportive of the neighborhoods,” Mills said. “We know the concerns and we are trying to alleviate the problems.”

Sarah Krebs