In the Know: How Parking Rates Work

Many of our staff recently received a notice of an increase in parking permit costs. We reached out to the Parking & Transportation office to learn more about why these increases happen, and help all of us be "in the know!"

Why Are USU Parking Permit Rates Increasing?

Permit rates have gone up every year for several years in a row. Why does the cost keep going up? The short answer is that the cost of building and maintaining parking lots and facilities continues to rise significantly every year. Increases in construction and maintenance costs each year are the main contributors.

How is Parking Funded?

The State of Utah has legislated the Board of Regents sets regulations for Higher Education in the state. Those regulations require that parking be self-funded. In other words, USU Parking and Transportation Services is required to pay its own way. Permit sales and other forms of revenue combine to substantially cover the costs of building lots and facilities on campus. Let’s look at the costs of parking the nearly 15K-20K people visiting daily for classes, employment, housing, events, and services. Then let’s look at the revenue to see how Parking is managing the money and the parking space.

Expenses add up to nearly $2.5M with the largest chunk going to make bond payments for our parking terraces. Labor costs make up the next largest slice with $600K for team members that work to stay ahead of the constant changes to parking locations, maintenance, enforcement and other key services.

Beyond the costs listed in the graphics, there are a number of parking lot improvement projects that we share costs with Facilities.

Capital Improvement Project Estimates

• Student Living Center North Yellow Lot = less than $210,000
• Aggie Terrace Fire Suppression System = $140K
• West Spectrum Lot Resurface = $250K
• Aggie Village Laundry Lot = $75K
• Old Main East Lot = $50K
• Darwin Avenue Lots = $75K

Challenges for Parking on Campus

1. Convenience is… well… convenient.
• Most people want the convenience of coming and going at will
• Most people aren’t willing, or are unable, to walk very far to get to their final destination
2. Every parking lot is a future building
• If you drive a vehicle to campus, rest assured that today’s parking stall will someday be replaced by a building for studying, working, shopping, eating or storage.
3. As campus grows, more stalls will be moved to very expensive parking garages or surface lots.

Cost of a Terrace Stall

Building parking lots and parking structures is very costly. Below are the numbers behind the costs of the Gateway Parking Terrace.

• Terrace Cost Initial Cost = $12M
• 30-Year Bond Payments = $17M
• Number of Stalls = 400
• Cost/stall = $42,470
• Useful Life = 50 years
• Cost per year to park in a stall = $849.00*
• Current price of an annual Gateway permit = $330.00

*Doesn’t include maintenance costs over 50-year life of structure. Example: Repair to Fire Suppression is $140K

As you can see from the revenue sources for Parking, we project that we will clear roughly $100K for the coming year. Any profits realized in Parking are rolled into a fund dedicated to the increasingly expensive lots and garages needed to park our students, staff and guests on campus.

Parking for Athletic Events

USU football and men’s basketball games present a disruption to weekday parking and traffic on campus. USU must accommodate academics, academic support services and events on campus, and most of the time there is room for everyone. The football schedule typically has no more than one or two games played on weekdays, most games are played on Saturday which does not affect parking. Men’s basketball games are played any day of the week, but tip-off is usually scheduled for 7:00 PM or later. There are only 2 areas affected, Black and Green Spectrum lots. Those permits holders are allowed to move to other central campus locations during these times.

USU Parking Advisory Committee

USU administration has established the Parking Advisory Committee to advise them on recommended changes to parking lot designations, construction projects, and permit rates. This ensures a broad review parking needs at the Logan campus. The membership on the committee is listed below and most terms are for three years.

• Chair – John Bostock, Executive Director, Housing Services
• Faculty Members – Three faculty members. Two are nominated by the Faculty Senate and one at-large member is nominated by the VP for Business and Finance
• Staff Members – Two staff members are nominated. One from the USU Planning group in Facilities and another from USU Housing
• Students – There are four student officers from USUSA nominated to the committee. A student from the Residents Hall Association is also nominated
• Secretary – The Committee Chair appoints a secretary for the committee