Parking issues continue to rise with planned lot closing

When Parking Lot H closes for demolition of O’Shaughnessy Hall, St. Thomas will no longer be in compliance with its special conditions use permit.

The permit’s basic requirement is that there must be one parking space for every four people, which applies to Schoenecker Arena, O’Shaughnessy Stadium and O’Shaughnessy Educational Center auditorium. It also requires that those parking spaces be within 600 feet of primary entrances.

Doug Hennes, vice president of university and government relations, said if the closest parking spot in the lot is within 600 feet of primary entrances, the entire parking lot counts. St. Thomas has always met that requirement, which has existed for more than 20 years, according to Hennes.

“Well, now that [the lots] will be gone, and we’re only going to have 30 spaces under the student center, we’re not going to be in compliance on the stadium or the arena,” he said.

The Anderson Parking Facility will become the main parking center once Lot H is gone, but with St. Thomas’ current permit, that ramp is 500 feet too far from primary entrances.

Because Lot H will be closed in March, Hennes said that St. Thomas will be more than 400 parking spaces short of being in compliance for the stadium and more than 75 spaces from compliance on the arena.

In order to regain compliance, St. Thomas must renew its permit, which was first approved in 1990. This spring, St. Thomas will seek to modify that permit to allow the required parking to be within and beyond 600 feet of primary entrances.

Modifying permit to be in compliance

After Lot H is closed for construction, St. Thomas will be 800 parking spaces short of being in compliance with its current permit. Hennes said that in the spring they hope to modify it with the following points:

• Although Lot H will no longer be available, with the new Anderson Parking Facility, St. Thomas has almost 2,600 parking spaces on campus. People are just going to have to walk a little farther.
• For events in the stadium and the arena, the majority of the spectators are resident students who walk, and therefore do not need parking.
• Stadium and arena games are played on weeknights or Saturdays, when parking is pretty available, although it’s not necessarily within 600 feet.
• The average attendance in the stadium and in the arena is not capacity. The code is to take into account if there is a full house.

Stephani Bloomquist can be reached at slbloomquist@stthomas.edu.