If you pay a parking ticket doled out on the University campus, chances are you’ll be helping to pay off debts accrued on the parking structure under construction beneath the Matthew Knight Arena.
University officials estimate the 377-spot underground garage will cost about $15 million by the time it is finished, although some have estimated it will cost as much as $18 million. That money comes largely from a state bond the University will have to pay back.
To repay that bond, the University placed the financial burden on its Department of Public Safety, which administers parking on campus. DPS saved money to build a parking structure for years and considered various locations on and around campus, most notably a lot near Northwest Christian University between Franklin Blvd. and East 11th Ave.
When the time came to build the new sports arena, however, that money was required for the parking structure there. DPS Capt. Herb Horner, the officer in charge of parking for DPS, said the first payment on the bonds wiped out nearly all of the money DPS had in reserve for parking.
It still leaves millions to be repaid and DPS’ parking fund with sole responsibility to do it.
One way DPS will seek to do that is by trying to bring in more money from parking tickets and passes.
“A lot of people don’t understand why our prices went up as much as they did,” Horner said. “And, well, it’s because we have to balance our budget, and it’s really difficult to do that when you have that kind of financial responsibility.”
The price of student parking passes has already been doubled from last year to this year, and Horner said it’s unlikely they will increase again soon. However, the price of faculty parking is set to increase from $300 to $400. The cost of parking passes for visitors and for commercial vehicles is also set to increase, along with parking meter enforcement.
The athletic department will contribute to paying off the structure, but indirectly: When events are held in the arena, athletics will pay DPS for use of the garage.
That funding will be substantial, but it presents a problem because the arena is not yet built.
“That parking structure will not open ‘til January 2011,” Horner said. “But yet our first payment on that debt was due in 2010. And so there’s no revenue being generated by something we’re having to already pay for.”
DPS had been in the process of fomenting plans for different structures. Horner said the department conducted two studies on where to place the a new garage, with heavy consideration given to what he called Lot 6-Adam, a grass field across 11th Avenue from Dad’s Gate Station. There was talk of the University of Oregon and Northwest Christian University sharing parking there.
Instead, the University went ahead with plans to build the Knight Arena garage. Because it is underground, Horner said, it will cost three times as much as an above-ground structure would have cost.
“If the circumstances had been perfect, we would never have built an underground structure,” Horner said, adding, “Under the circumstances, because of the location, because of the requirement to actually build the arena, this is what we have.”
Of the 377 spots in the new structure, 135 — more than a third — will be reserved for the Jaqua Academic Center for Student-Athletes, meaning they will likely be used exclusively by student-athletes.
When the proposals, and others for parking on campus, were announced at a Mar. 31 Student Senate meeting, several senators gave enraged responses.
“Dear God, I think I hate it,” said Sen. Demic Tipitino, often a proponent of the University administration, later adding, “I have a problem with me getting a ticket when I’m studying in the library to bail out the athletic department. That’s some shit.”
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