Rio Grande campus student parking spots will be turned into a skate park

Students who drive to Austin Community College's Rio Grande campus will be losing 75 parking spots at the end of the month. Starting June 30, ACC staff and students will no longer be able to use the parking lot directly north of the ACC parking garage.

The lot was originally a set of tennis courts owned by the City of Austin. When ACC needed help alleviating some of their congested parking problems while the seven story parking garage was being built, Austin Parks and Recreation agreed to let ACC use the old tennis courts for parking.

Beginning July 6 construction on a community skate park will begin on the lot.

The skate park will remove 75 parking spots according to Bill Mullane, Executive Director of Facilities and Construction for ACC. Mullane also said that an additional 24 parking spots will be unusable during construction of the skate park.

The skate park should take about nine months to build according to project manager responsible for the Capitol Improvement Plan for the Austin Park and Recreations department, Tony Arnold.

"This lot was never intended for parking, it was only something we agreed to let ACC use for a short period of time," said Arnold who has been with the department for nine years. "It was a favor to ACC."

According to Arnold, he and the project coordinator for the new skate park, Gary Gregson, have been working closely with ACC to make sure the construction aspect of the project runs effectively.

"Nobody likes construction," Arnold said. "But the end result will be completely worth it. We'll have built something that everybody is going to love."

The rest of the parking lot located north of the parking garage that is not a part of the old tennis court area will continue to remain open to ACC students as well as Austin Independent School District (AISD) members. ACC, AISD and the City of Austin all have a mutual contract together that gives each organization a portion of the lot according to Arnold.

"There are agreements between ACC, the City of Austin, and AISD as far as the parking is concerned," said Arnold. "House Park Football Stadium which is owned by the City of Austin primarily needs the lot after hours, ACC primarily needs it during the day, Austin Recreation Center needs it minimal during the day but more after hours as well so it's always been a good working system to share the parking."

Gry Park, a psychology major who has been a student at ACC for three years, already considers parking downtown "to be a nightmare" and is worried that construction of a skate park won't make parking any easier for her.

"There just too limited amount of parking spaces around here to put in a skate park that's going to affect our parking, especially downtown," Park said.

Student Morgan Rankins worries that the lack of parking might make some students more aggressive drivers as spaces become sparse.

"It's unfortunate because there are not a lot of parking spaces to begin with," Rankins said. "There's a lot of tension between drivers to get a space."

But not all students are upset about losing the parking spaces to the skate park.

"It will encourage students to go green and walk or use public transportation. I think it will be a good thing for everybody overall," said Max Taylor, who has been a student at ACC for two years and has never had a problem with parking because he drives a scooter.

Taylor, who has been a skateboarder for 12 years, is excited about the new skate park which will be closer to home.

"[Mabel Davis Skate Park] is way down south and not that great of a skate park," Taylor said about the other skate park built by Austin Parks and Recreation. "The plans for this skate park are going to be amazing, better than any skate park Austin has ever had."

The plans for the new skate park are available online at the City of Austin 2006 Bond Election website. The park, a free facility, will be opened from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. to the general public. The course will have a seating area, a restroom facility, benches, as well as a shaded grass area.

"The concept of this is a community activity area" Arnold said. "Even if you don't skateboard, there is a place for you to come sit, have a picnic, enjoy the sport, watch and participate in skating boarding in that manner."