The renovations introduced by Chancellor John Bardo’s university master plan have resulted in a loss of parking spaces for students, faculty and staff.
Information provided by director of University Police and traffic services, Gene McAbee, spells out the parking modifications.
The greatest number of losses resulted from the University Center expansion work. Closing the lower UC lot led to losses of 100 commuter spaces and 13 faculty and staff spaces.
Commuters also lost 29 spaces in the lot on the south side of Belk Building for construction on the new Workforce Development Center and the 14 commuter spaces in the Old Motorpool Lot across from Hunter Library.
Faculty and staff lost an additional 25 spaces in the lot behind the library.
However, McAbee has attempted to compensate for the losses, such as spending $600 on signs intended to direct commuters to appropriate spaces.
The former Camp Lab School, now the Outreach Center, added 115 total spaces in one gravel and one paved parking lot.
McAbee said that once the renovation is complete, even more spaces will be available.
Across the street from the Ramsey Center are the creek lot and the 450-space baseball field lot.
A shuttle runs from the baseball field lot and the Outreach Center to Killian Plaza every 15 minutes.
Beside and behind Harrill Hall, commuter spaces are available. These lots are never full because Harrill is a freshman hall, and freshman must park in outlying lots, according to McAbee..
The water tower lot, located beside Robertson Hall, was redesigned and repaved last year, adding 45 more spaces to the commuter lot.
This area and the Harrill lots are convenient for students who have classes in Moore building.
All faculty/staff spaces have been removed from the lot behind the library, which gives commuters 25 additional spaces.
To make up for this loss, the 14 commuter spaces in the Old Motorpool Lot were changed to faculty/staff spaces.
The one-hour spaces directly in front of the library were changed to faculty/staff spaces last year.
Bardo’s master plan for WCU also calls for Centennial Drive to eventually become a pedestrian walkway.
