Debating whether or not a parking garage would benefit the APU student body

Hello parking garage, goodbye mountains? There has been a rumor running around that a parking garage could potentially be built in APU’s Parking Lot A. However, the building of the garage is being refrained from because it would block the view of the mountains.

The question here is: Should we sacrifice the mountain view or the parking spaces? Not only has it been an issue for students, but it affects the faculty and staff as well.

Being a dweller of University Village (UV), I am all for the parking garage. The parking situation is absolutely ridiculous in UV; if I get home any time past 6:45 p.m., there are absolutely no parking spots left. I have heard many people in UV talk about how Campus Safety should only sell as many permits as there are parking spaces.

At the beginning of the year, APU allowed Lot A to be an “overflow parking lot” for people who lived on campus. I loved the idea, but at the same time, I felt bad for the commuters, faculty and staff trying to park in Lot A.

“The mountains are not the selling point of APU, so if we are able to build a parking garage, then let’s do it,” says Emily Haakenson a junior psychology major, who lives in UV. “I would even be open to the first floor only being allowed for faculty and staff, and the remaining floors to be for all students.” Haakenson continues to say that Campus Safety should have only allotted a certain number of permits for the numbers of parking spaces there are.

“Regardless of whether or not there will be a parking garage, there need to be more spots on East,” says Charles Henderson a commuter and senior allied health major. “I do like the idea of a parking garage, but it is hard because I do enjoy walking to class and seeing the mountains.”

Jake Van Baest, the Student Government Association (SGA) controller, has worked closely with campus safety and what they have been doing to improve the parking situation.

“Campus Safety turned to creating Lot A as an overflow lot because it was a concern of safety over convenience,” says Van Baest. “There were too many shuttles at night driving back and forth from West to East, especially for the freshmen, so they wanted to make sure that their priority was safety.”

However, just after a week of school, Campus Safety sent an email to all students, stating, “The new parking assignments were met with concern from the Student Government Association and several APU departments, due to the impact and lack of East Campus parking for commuter students and faculty and staff members.”

If there is a potential for a parking garage in the future, then it should be built. I understand that the issues of time, space and money hover around this build, but if the students and faculty would be positively affected by it, then it could and should be done.

#SOS #parkinggarage #byeLotA