 "Photo: Joey Gidseg")
Students concerned about dwindling parking spaces may not see an expansion this semester, but a recent report has indicated that numerous projects are being evaluated in the hopes of addressing the parking problems that have plagued various ACC campuses.
A major expansion will be at downtown's Rio Grande Campus, which has only 325 parking spaces, far short of the recommended minimum of 1200 spaces. According to a summary provided by the board of trustees, Rio Grande currently serves 7,400 students and provides 22 percent of the district's overall campus capacity.
The proposed expansion entails building a parking garage on land currently owned by ACC at the nearby Skills Center. This should expand the current number of spaces by about 400. The school is also in talks to purchase land adjacent to the property in order to build a larger garage.
The project is part of a nearly $34 million bond program for Rio Grande, $15 million of which is estimated for parking.
Originally planned in 2003, the parking expansion stalled due to the inability of the city and the Austin school district to come to a timely agreement regarding the surrounding property.
"There's lots of complexities in place to prevent somebody from building a large parking garage on it. We had that situation to start with and each of those entities has a constituency that is important and had to be considered. Not that it couldn't be done, but it was taking too much time," said Ben Ferrell, vice president of business services.
ACC has also allocated $21.5 million for cooperative activities with Austin Independent School District at the South Austin Campus. Part of this program is an expansion of the existing parking garage, in addition to attachments to Crockett High School. The expansion is currently in design and the construction is planned for summer. At Pinnacle Campus, $650,000 has been allocated for new parking. Construction is expected to begin during summer.
Many students at Rio Grande park in metered spaces in the surrounding neighborhood, often ducking out of class to keep their time from expiring. Nearby homes and businesses, which include many law firms and medical practices that do not directly benefit from ACC students, reside on streets clogged with cars.
The board of trustees agenda cited concerns by local residents and businesses affected by the overflow onto neighboring streets in their decision to move forward on the Rio Grande parking garage.
Ferrell said that the primary incentive is "to provide parking for students at Rio Grande, because we know the situation is not close to good at all."
ACC plans to eventually double available parking throughout the district per recommendations by consulting and architectural firm Sasaki Associates. According to a summary of the Sasaki report, ACC plans to structure growth through a combination of new campus construction and existing campus expansion in order to increase overall square footage per student.
With nearly 50,000 expected students to be enrolled at one time by fall 2025, and with plans to expand existing campus sizes to accommodate them, parking is moving ahead.
Ferrell said, "It's been too long, we have got to get some parking."
Be the first to comment on this article!