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As the Gazette went to press, the Transportation and Parking Advisory
Committee (TPAC) was scheduled to meet Feb. 20 to continue discussing possible
changes in Carolina's parking program for next year.
TPAC, which advises the administration on transportation and parking issues,
hopes to forward recommendations to top campus administrators in time for the
proposals to be sent on to the University Board of Trustees for its approval in
March. No decisions have been made yet, and any changes would not take effect
until Aug. 18.
At a Feb. 13 meeting, TPAC agreed to put several items on the table for
discussion but took no action on them. Those items include some sort of
night-parking program and permit-fee increases. Both moves are being considered
as ways to help bring in an additional $2 million needed to balance next year's
transportation and parking budget.
Other potential revenue sources TPAC plans to discuss Feb. 20 include
increasing the transportation tax charged to departments and asking the
University to contribute funds to the transportation and parking budget,
something it did last year with a one-time allocation of $500,000 to help get
fare-free transit rolling.
Whatever decisions are made about next year, they will come in the context of
demand for parking at Carolina outstripping its supply by wider and wider
margins.
The campus master plan calls for new construction totaling 5.9 million square
feet and increasing the amount of green space on south campus, both of which
will cause the loss of surface parking lots. The plan also calls for replacing
these lots with eight new parking decks. But while the decks will provide
enough spaces to meet the growing demand from campus visitors and patients,
they will not meet the growth in demand from employees or students.
By the end of the decade, according to campus data, the net increases in
parking spaces will be 1,361 for visitors; 435 for employees; 31 for student
family housing; and two for commuting students. During the same time, the
number of campus employees is projected to increase by 44 percent, and the
number of UNC Healthcare employees is expected to increase by 16 percent. The
number of students living on campus is expected to increase by 27 percent, but
they will lose 239 spaces for their use.
This all means that transportation alternatives will become more and more
critical at Carolina, said Carolyn Elfland, associate vice chancellor for
campus services.
"We're simply not in a position where we can continue to do business as usual,"
she said.
A recent survey conducted by the Department of Public Safety found that 77
percent of employees drive to work alone while only 4 percent carpool; only 5
percent use local transit; and only 5 percent use park-and-ride lots.
Over the next eight years, the number of people driving alone to work will need
to drop to 60 percent, and use of transit from home and park-and-ride service
will need to increase. The University projects that transit use will increase
to 14 percent while park-and-ride use will rise to 11 percent.
Getting to those levels will take improved transit services, Elfland said, and
the University is committed to making that happen. Improvements already made
include fare-free transit and new bus routes serving high-demand areas. The
University also is looking into adding some park-and-ride lots and expanding
others, such as the one off N.C. 54.
But transit improvements take money, and that -- plus paying for deck
construction and new park-and-ride lots -- is driving the need for more revenue
in the transportation and parking budget, Elfland said. Finding ways to
generate those funds has been one of TPAC's most difficult tasks, said Bob
Knight, TPAC chair and assistant vice chancellor for finance and
administration.
"Above all, this is about how to get people to campus," Knight said. "It's
about access, and it's about safety. Last, but not least, unfortunately, we
have to find a way to pay for this."
Knight said details that TPAC will discuss Feb. 20 include whether a night-time
parking program should have a free component for students and faculty who
return to campus in the evenings to study or conduct research.
Besides the revenue a night-parking program would generate, TPAC is considering
the option as a matter of equity -- the thinking being that employees who work
at night should have to pay for parking just as day-time employees do, Knight
said.
As for higher permit fees for next year, one possibility up for discussion will
be whether any increases should be tied to salary, with employees who make more
money seeing greater increases in their fees, Knight said.
Knight said TPAC'S work has been shaped a great deal by student and employee
feedback, which came through means that included a series of TPAC-hosted
community forums held Feb. 5.
Knight said TPAC learned that students want a free-parking option at night for
both safety and financial reasons. There also was a strong sense that each
segment of the campus community should do its fair share to cover costs, he
said.
The proposals discussed by TPAC at the Feb. 13 meeting were put forward by
Knight. He described them as "elements of an acceptable proposal" that had
emerged from TPAC's discussions over the past several months.
The list did not come from Chancellor James Moeser and his cabinet, an
impression Knight said he mistakenly made at the Feb. 13 meeting. In an
interview after the meeting, Knight said he'd intended only to make it clear to
TPAC members that administrators want them to adopt recommendations in time for
them to go to the Board of Trustees so that the panel will have fulfilled its
charge to represent campus views on transportation and parking issues.
"I was trying to say that we needed to accept our responsibility as a committee
to put forth a proposal that considered all sources of revenue and didn't put
too much burden on any one group," Knight said.
In a campuswide e-mail message sent Feb. 14 by Moeser, the chancellor stressed
that no decisions have been made on transportation and parking for next year.
TPAC is tackling a "number of difficult issues," he said.
"While there likely is no solution that will make us all happy, our goal is to
find one that is fair and equitable to all members of our community," Moeser
said. "Please be assured that no decisions have been made."
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