printable versionCommuters asked to roll with the loss of 900 parking spaces as of next week
BY MICHAEL PEÑA
Starting Monday, 500 parking spaces for A-permit holders in front of the Medical Center Office Building and several neighboring research facilities along Campus Drive West will be eliminated as construction begins on major projects for the School of Medicine.
At the other end of campus, 400 parking spaces also will be lost on Monday when construction on the Munger Graduate Residences begins in parking lots adjacent to the Law School and Stern Hall, along Nathan Abbott Way and Bowdoin Lane. Construction that has already taken place in the area was related to the relocation of the historic houses now placed behind Tresidder Union and Lane A.
Brodie Hamilton, director of Parking and Transportation Services (P&TS), acknowledges that the elimination of so many stalls will inconvenience regular commuters who have grown accustomed to parking in the aforementioned surface lots over the years—especially for A-permit holders who have gotten used to parking steps from their offices.
But the university has gone to great lengths to give commuters advance notice of the changes happening at both ends of campus and present them with alternative places to park, Hamilton said. People also have contacted his office by phone and e-mail to express their thoughts; and the School of Medicine gave presentations to update the community and discuss impacts with affected members in late February.
"We understand that these construction projects will force hundreds of those who must continue driving to campus to park a little farther away, or perhaps consider changing how they commute altogether by switching to alternative transportation," Hamilton said. "But between outdoor signage, ongoing e-mail notifications distributed through office managers, construction updates on our website, and the town hall presentations by the School of Medicine, we've done our best to let everyone know this was coming. So hopefully no one will be surprised."
Eventually, the multilevel parking structure being built under Wilbur Field, on Campus Drive East, will provide 1,187 new spaces at the southern end of campus where students and employees are now being affected by the construction on Munger. But until that garage opens—by March 2008, according to Hamilton—a number of steps will be taken to help ease the situation in the interim.
The Wilbur parking lots along Campus Drive East, lots 62 and 63 on this year's Parking and Circulation Map, will have attendant-assisted parking. Starting on Monday, attendants will be stationed at the lot from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. to park cars in the aisles once all the spaces are taken. The lot will serve A- and C-permit holders and residents with EA or ES permits. The service will run for at least six weeks, until Commencement on June 17.
The service may continue next fall if it appears that parking in that part of campus will remain tight, Hamilton said. "We should be able to fit up to 120 additional cars in those lots with the service," he said. "The good thing is the closure of the Law School lot was delayed until after its students graduate. So we might see a significant drop in parking demand over there after May 6."
Additional steps include converting some C parking to A beside the Okada dorm, and directing C, EA and ES overflow to surplus parking near the Cowell Houses lot and along Bowdoin Street. A temporary 100-space lot opened last year between Wilbur and Stern halls for student residents.
A few C spots behind Vaden Heath Center may be converted to A spaces, and Hamilton's office will do assessments in the months ahead to determine whether to do more C-to-A conversions in that area—or to even temporarily shut down one side of Campus Drive East (between Serra Street and Escondido Road) to create new spaces for parallel parking.
At the School of Medicine, the 500 A spots to be displaced on Monday are those in front of the Medical School Office Building, the Pediatric Surgical Research Lab and the Center for Clinical Sciences Research. The lots are making way for the construction of an underground loading dock and the Learning and Knowledge Center—a 120,000-square-foot structure to be built on the site where Fairchild Auditorium now stands that will serve as the focal point of the school's educational activities.
Hamilton's office held a lottery in late March for 75 A spaces that would remain through Aug. 31. The lottery was conducted via the online survey service Zoomerang, and the winners were randomly picked by computer, Hamilton said. Because construction may take up additional space in the months ahead, the long-term availability of those 75 stalls is uncertain. But if any remain, Hamilton said his office may hold another lottery.
Approximately 300 C spaces have just been converted to A spaces in the Stock Farm lots along Welch Road, with the expectation that C-permit holders will begin to fill surplus C stalls in the same lots and in Parking Structure 5. "That structure was built expressly to accommodate future growth," said Phil Garcia, parking services manager for P&TS. "It varies according to time of day and year, but there are usually anywhere from 400 to 600 empty stalls in that garage on any given day."
In addition, 100 C spaces in the Jordan Lot have just been converted into A spaces. By the end of this week, P&TS also will have added two new stops on the Marguerite Lines B and C at Via Ortega and Campus Drive in anticipation of road closures due to utilities work for the Learning and Knowledge Center and to add more stops near the School of Medicine.
On Feb. 26, more than 200 people attended a town hall meeting at which Garcia, School of Medicine Dean Philip Pizzo and Maggie Saunders, project manager in the school's facilities planning and management office, gave presentations and responded to attendees' questions and concerns. Office managers also have been forwarding regular e-mail updates from Saunders about construction and parking changes to all their employees.
Those updates also are available on a website devoted to the Learning and Knowledge Center project, which Saunders launched on March 1, at http://lkc.stanford.edu/.
"There will continue to be adequate parking on campus, and people will still be able to select from permit cost options that will help determine how close they park to their workplaces," Hamilton said. "But the displacement of surface lots are inevitable from time to time, given Stanford's need to build new facilities where innovative learning and research can take place."
For updates on construction-related parking impacts and alternative parking locations, visit http://transportation.stanford.edu/. Questions and comments may be sent to parkingoperations@stanford.edu.