The price of parking rates at the Polytechnic and West campuses will go up next fall.
Rates are increasing because some lots will be converted into recreation centers and residence halls at Polytechnic, said Michael Hegarty, a spokesman for Parking and Transit Services said.
Polytechnic will lose 25 percent of its existing parking space to new ASU and Mesa construction, including a new road, Hegarty said. PTS is planning a parking garage at Polytechnic, but a construction date has not been set.
The increases at West will make rates more consistent across campuses. The availability of parking will remain the same at West because a new lot will be paved this summer.
PTS is financially independent from ASU. In addition to regulating parking lots, it provides free intercampus shuttles, free campus shuttles at Tempe and reduced rate light rail passes.
Polytechnic
At the Polytechnic campus, parking permits in the green lots inside the Williams Campus Loop will increase to $280 per year from $210. The evening permits at Polytechnic will be $180 instead of $135, and they will be valid in the green or red parking zones. Red zones are $480 during the day and green zones are $280.
Residence Hall Lot permits, previously free, will now cost $280, which is equal to the cost of residence hall permits on the West campus.
English literature senior Lauren Jeffrey, the secretary of the student government at Polytechnic, said she was not surprised by the increased rates.
“It was bound to happen sooner or later,” Jeffrey said.
West
At the West campus, permits for parking lots 3 and 10 will also increase to $280 per year, up from $210. Evening permit rates at the West campus will go up to $180 from $135.
Not all parking lots on the south side of the West campus have overhead covers, but the price remained the same for all of them because PTS did not build the solar panels that provide covered parking.
The only new lot to be built this summer will replace free parking on the West campus. Students parked for free on the southwest side of campus on West Wood Drive this semester, Hegarty said. Next fall, students will pay $210 for a permit to park there.
Over the summer, PTS will take over management of the parking lot from the city of Phoenix and repave the lot. The lot was only meant to hold about 35 cars, but on an average day about 100 vehicles are parking there, Hegarty said. Parking will be expanded from 35 spaces to around 200 spaces.
Commuters are also causing damage to the area by jumping the curbs and parking on the gravel at the park near West Wood Drive and 49th Avenue, Hegarty said.
David Delgadillo, a religion and applied ethics studies and philosophy senior, takes classes both at Tempe and West campuses. He takes the free ASU shuttle to Tempe but parks at West, and said he was unhappy with higher parking permit rates.
“It’s kind of ridiculous. I think it would be nice if they could justify these increases in costs, but that is hardly ever the case,” Delgadillo said.
He doesn’t think the University has good reason for the increases.
“Why would you need to have the same prices for all the campuses? It’s not like all campuses have the same facilities,” Delgadillo said.
Biology sophomore Tasha Mohseni, who parks on the West campus, didn’t think paving the new parking lot was necessary, but she wasn’t opposed to the new rates.
“If it’s to better the campus, I guess that’s all right,” Mohseni said.
At the Tempe campus, rates will increase only for lot 16, located near University Drive and Mill Avenue, from $600 to $660.
Reach the reporter at mary.shinn@asu.edu
