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Cleveland State University Parking Services
In the fall semester, Cleveland State University Parking Services plans on closing 530 spaces. This diagram shows which lots will be closed and where leased lots will be open to help relieve parking shortages.
Parking plans may cause woes
By Nathalie Evans
By Nathalie Evans In four years time, parking problems at Cleveland State University may be eliminated. But this fall, they may be worse, and it’s going to cost more to park as well. (See related story, “Parking rates to go up, in News.”)
In a continuous effort to enhance parking, a project to build garages and add parking lots on the CSU campus is underway. The expected completion of this project is some time in 2009.
Under the plan, three full-size garages will be constructed, bringing the number of garages at CSU to five.
With the acquisition of the Bakers’ Union Building and its parking lot, CSU will be able to open this lot for this fall semester. It will add roughly 60 spaces.
CSU will have 4,534 parking spaces available in the fall of 2005. About 16, 300 students attend classes on the CSU campus. Right now, for every three students who park, there is one available parking space.
By the fall of 2006, 4,812 parking spaces will be available.
The East Garage parking project, behind the Mather Mansion, is scheduled to be opened in the fall 2006 semester. Approximately 428 parking spaces will be available. The new garage will have about four decks.
A projected 50 parking spaces will be accessible under the new rec center. This parking area is scheduled to open with the building in fall 2006.
However, in 2007 parking spaces are expected to decrease to 4,754. The following fall of 2008, parking is projected to increase to 4,962, when a garage with between 800 and 900 spaces will be built adjacent to the Convocation Center.
Near the Doan Electric Building about 400 spaces will be available for parking sometime in 2009.
The parking system improvements as part of the CSU Master Parking Plan will also include restructuring and resurfacing existing facilities. This plan includes amenities such as paved surfaces, lighting upgrades, landscaping, emergency phones, controlled access, trash receptacles and lighting, illuminated signage, and booths as opposed to uneven gravel surfaces and potholes, poor lighting, no landscaping and no controlled access.
As part of the parking system improvements, parking struc-tures are expected to be easily identifiable with well-illuminated entries and transparent, illuminated stair towers.
As construction proceeds, new development will have an impact on available parking spaces. To manage the transition of parking some of the strategies for maintaining parking inventory will consist of leasing additional lot, encouraging rideshare, public transit and reviewing class schedules.
New construction on campus will take some of the surface lots over the next years beginning this fall. But temporary lots will help with some of the parking crunch.
Parking lots will be strategically located to offset the closing of some of the lots. Surface lots, the cheapest parking accommodations, now take up about 25 acres of the campus.
The improvements made by parking services are designed to enhance the quality of the parking system on the campus by bringing parking space availability closer to the core of the CSU campus. This will allow Parking Services to disperse parking structures to the periphery of campus. As for existing facilities, parking in the core should be limited.
Upon completion of the plan, available parking spaces in 2009 will increase to 5,358 parking spaces. This will give the average parker an estimated five- to six-minute time frame to reach his destination on campus.
Domenic Bellone, project assistant from the division of capital planning, says, “We work with other departments on campuses to ensure we are planning in a comprehensive and responsible manner, which supports the goals of the CSU community.”