Enrollment increases parking woes

(Fall 2010)
 
By MICHAEL MINEAU

The increase in student enrollment the past two years has lead to overcrowded parking lots at FVCC. In response to these problems, courtesy notes have been issued to students who have not parked in a designated parking space.

“We're issuing stickers to people that are parking in driveways and in areas that they shouldn't be parking in that blocks traffic,” said Chuck Jensen, FVCC vice president of administration and finance. “We're not currently giving them to people who are parking on the grass. At this point we have not towed anybody and if anybody created a situation where it was a hazard, then we would have to tow them.”

FVCC does not have a campus police force to issue tickets to those violating parking laws. If a campus police were implemented, then that would be an expense to the college, and may lead to an increase in tuition.

There are 2,539 students enrolled at FVCC for fall semester, and growth is expected in future. The construction of a new parking lot would be expensive and there are no plans on building a new asphalted parking lot.

“We are looking to see where our problem areas are at and maybe even go so far as to designate some areas where people can park. Maybe even go so far as to lay some gravel, so when winter comes we can have some safe parking for people,” Jensen said.

Barack Evans, who is an FVCC student, does not think that it is necessary for FVCC to build a new parking lot.

“Shouldn't be on a list of high priorities for the college. I'm all about a gravel parking lot. I think that it will help the flow of traffic, but it seems that people are driving in circles to find that one front-row spot. Students here have it pretty good compared to other colleges, but they just don't know any better,” Evans said.

As of now, FVCC officials do not have plans to build a new parking lot, but are aware that in the future it may be an issue that will need attention.

“If our enrollments continue to stay where they’re at, yeah, we would be looking at that (a paved parking lot) in the future. But for now we’ll continue to look at temporary things that we can do, i.e gravel parking lot if needed,” Jensen said.

Michael Mineau is a student in Journalism 101C, News Writing and Reporting.