Collegiate Times

The Perry Street parking garage will open in full capacity during the first week of October, according to Bo Frazier, assistant manager of Parking Services. 

After losing 402 spots during construction of the structure, the garage at full capacity will provide a total of approximately 1,300 spots. 

“We created an excess of space to cover the loss of space,” Frazier said. 

The lot first opened Aug. 23, with 800 spaces in the structure available.  

Parking Services saw a demand for additional parking spots as both the Perry Street and Prices Fork Lots remained at maximum capacity, especially on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“Tuesdays and Thursdays are our busiest days,” said Steve Mouras, director of transportation and campus services.

Parking officials hope the structure will also relieve much of the parking congestion placed on the academic side of campus resulting from the construction of future buildings, including the Signature Engineering Building.

According to Mouras, the goal of the parking structure is to provide additional spaces to the location of campus with the highest demand, managing parking when buildings are added to the campus in the next five years.

“We wanted to increase capacity before we lost it,” Mouras said. 

Mouras said that Tech tries to maintain a stable number of 15,000 parking spaces on campus, adding his office is trying to find a balance between parking availability and distance between lots and classrooms.  Currently, a 10 to 15 minute walk to classes is designated reasonable by the university.  

“To a certain degree its unrealistic for folks to expect that there will be an empty and convenient parking space adjacent to their classroom and office,” Mouras said.

The costs of building additional structures must be addressed, according to Mouras.  Prices of parking permits would rise, green space would be lost and traffic in Blacksburg would increase with the construction of more garages.

Mouras encouraged faculty, staff and students to take advantage of other options offered by transportation and campus services, including carpooling, biking and Blacksburg Transit.

“They are more environmentally-friendly and reduce congestion,” Mouras said.  

Frazier noted that while building a parking garage is more expensive per space than building a surface area lot, there is little additional space for surface area parking lots on campus.

“We have to go up instead of out,” Frazier said.  

Parking permit holders experienced a notable increase in fees, based heavily on the establishment of the parking garage.  Student permits cost $189 this year compared to $136, an increase of $53.  Prices will continue to increase next school year, but Frazier hopes that they will level out after the 2011-12 school year.    

Parking Services will also incur the debt from the Virginia Tech Foundation’s parking garage project on Turner Street.  According to Frazier, Parking Services will pay for the Turner Street garage for approximately 10 years.

A version of this article appeared in the Oct 1 issue of the Collegiate Times.