Parking permit prices would rise 3 percent for most employees in August under a proposal being drafted for the Board of Trustees, Michael Klein, director of Transportation and Parking told the Employee Forum this month.
The increase is needed to help the department cope with rising costs, especially salaries, Klein said. After the meeting, he also stressed the increases would help fund special projects such as the conversion of Michie lot.
The proposed increase is part of a package of proposals expected to go to the Board of Trustees in May for their approval. Among the other proposals are increases in some parking fines and a limited night parking program, Klein said.
The parking permit fee increases would allow DTP to maintain current services with no expansion, Klein said.
"Fortunately we were able to avoid [an increase] last year by some good work by the staff and just the nature of our business," he said. "But we really do need this just to keep our heads above water."
Besides across-the-board increases, some permit holders will see the final portion of a three-year phase-in of higher permit prices, Klein said.
Before the 1994-95 academic year, employees who work in some outlying areas, such as at Physical Plant, were paying parking fees at half the standard campus rate. Those fees are being increased over three years so that they will be set at 75 percent of the standard campus rate.
Under the proposal, holders of R permits this year would see their permit prices rise 16 percent, from $132 to $153. Holders of permits in married student housing are seeing an increase greater than the 3 percent rise as part of a five-year upward adjustment.
Fine details
Klein said some proposed increases in parking fines were needed to increase the deterrent effect of the fines.
"We haven't had a significant increase in the primary parking ticket rate in six or seven years," Klein said. "And during that time, parking rates have gone up."
He said, for example, visitors who are aware of the fine structure may figure it's a good gamble to park illegally and risk getting a $20 ticket for failure to display a valid permit rather than pay the $6 a day daily parking rate. The fine for failure to display a valid permit would rise to $30 under the proposal.
"We really want to have the deterrent match well with where permit fees are and where visitor fees are," he said.
Fines that would increase the most are those for counterfeiting parking permits and obtaining a permit by illegal means. These fines, under the draft proposal, would go from $50 to $200.
Other fines--such as parking in a reserved space without authority, unauthorized parking in a one-hour service space and unauthorized parking in an affiliated disability space--are proposed to rise from $30 to $50, Klein said.
Parking places
Klein also said some 600 parking spaces may be lost for the coming year if construction begins on the $19 million Health Affairs parking deck to be located next to the current deck.
"We would like to begin construction in August, but that's a very tight time frame," he said.
If construction were to begin this fall, S7 and SG permits would not be issued for the coming year, he said.
"Our understanding is the construction will happen soon enough in the cycle that it does not make sense for us to issue permits and then pull them back and have to relocate those people," Klein said.
Some spaces will be available in the new business school parking deck, which is due to be completed at about the same time, he said. DTP also was looking at increased use of park-and-ride lots, Chapel Hill Transit and Point-to-Point to serve employees affected by the construction, he said.
Two new visitor lots are expected to be ready when the fall semester begins--one on the former site of the old Michie House on Columbia Street and another near the new N.C. Neurosciences Hospital, Klein said.
The lot on the Michie property will serve as an extension of the N3 and NG lots, allowing some more employee and visitor parking, he said. The neurosciences lot will have about 100 spaces, serving the needs of that facility, he said.
Night parking and stickers
Klein said his department was moving forward on some portions of a night parking plan, but not any elements that would require anyone to purchase night parking permits.
DTP has been working to upgrade Point-to-Point's nighttime service, which will include an express shuttle from the Bell Tower Lot to north campus, he said. Lighting in the Bell Tower Lot will be improved and a security guard will be put on duty there, he said.
Klein told delegates that DTP was working on a plan under which employees would be required to put a window decal on the inside of their windshield. The decal would to help parking enforcement personnel identify vehicles affiliated with the University and cut down on counterfeit parking permits, he said.
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