Six-floor parking garage to be built on Lovett Lot within three years

By Amber Tong     2/3/15 2:07pm

A 500-spot, six-floor parking garage will be built on the Lovett Lot within three years, according to Student Association Parking Committee members Jazz Silva and Jacob Hernandez. The new parking garage offers a net gain of 350 spots over the current 150-spot Lovett Lot.

The garage will benefit both faculty and students by providing more spots in a prime location, Silva, Sid Richardson College Senator, said.

“The goal is to move parking toward the front of the campus,” Silva, a junior, said. “Because right now it’s pretty focused on the back, which is really inconvenient for faculty and staff — and also a lot of students. Greenbriar lot has 1,800 spots, and it’s only 32 percent full right now.”

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According to Silva and Hernandez, a Sid Richardson senior, the new garage is part of a plan to reorganize parking space on campus.

“With the addition of the new tennis court, and possibly the opera house, we are just looking at a change in the distribution of parking,” Silva said. “Rice doesn’t have a shortage of parking spots; we just need to restructure the location and pricing of the spots.” 

According to Hernandez, the administration is in the design stage, and it is expected that most of the construction will be done in one summer, at most three years from now.

“It’s a little bit more than just putting in a lot; you have to change the road by Lovett College, you have to widen the entrance, so there’s a couple logistical things that they have to do as well,” Hernandez said. “But I think the plan is to do it in just one summer.”

Meanwhile, Silva said the Parking Committee is looking to recruit student consultants to work on restructuring the prices of each parking lot in a way that will be both convenient to students and economically viable for the parking office.

“[The parking office is] actually in a deficit right now that they are slowly pulling themselves out of,” Silva said. “So whatever models students come up with [are] going to have to make economic sense.”

Citing a previous unexecuted proposal of building a garage under the new tennis court as an example, Silva said discussion about adding parking spots has been going on for a few years, but this year the SA gave particular attention to the issue.

“Parking has been an issue on campus for as long as I can remember,” Silva said. “But I’d say in the last year and a half it’s really taken off.”

Hernandez said it is important for the student body to keep up the commitment to parking issues.

“I think we may face a problem with lack of student involvement,” Hernandez said. “Since parking is an issue that crosses over year to year, the SA needs to make it a point for members to stay involved.  Without making parking an undergraduate priority, it could be overlooked in the future.” 

Silva said she is confident that as long as SA takes the lead to stay on top of parking issues, other stakeholders will also do their part to make things work for students.

“The administration [wants] to help so long as it is a priority for the student body,” Silva said. “If there’s one message I think the students should know, it’s that everyone wants to help, and being optimistic is the best way to get things done.” 

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