New parking lot under construction

Construction began last week on a new parking lot south of the University Union in an effort to help ease parking congestion at CSUS.

The recent completion of the new perimeter road, and the soon-to-be-constructed Alumni Center in Lot 8 have left CSUS with a shortage of available parking spaces in both faculty and student lots.

Several alternatives to offset the loss of parking include restriping existing lots to accommodate more cars, according to the minutes of the October 5 meeting of Transportation Advisory Committee. The CSUS Master Plan also includes a new parking garage that will be built where the temporary buildings are currently located.

Currently, Lot 6 contains only a few handicapped spaces in addition to the loading dock for the Union. Once the expanded parking lot is completed, Lot 6 will stretch from the south side of the Union to the north end of Lot 8. The land that Lot 6 will occupy was previously covered with grass, and the new construction will eliminate the need to cut down trees.

"Lot 6 is designed to accommodate 242 cars," said Howard Harris, associate vice president for Facilities Management.

According to Harris, the new parking lot is expected to be completed sometime in January in order to be open by the start of the spring semester.

In the October 5 Transportation Advisory Committee meeting, members discussed how the spaces would be divided up between faculty and students.

"A heated debate was waged in the meeting that Lot 6 should be all student parking," said ASI President Gary Davis, who campaigned last semester on improving parking at CSUS.

Harris said that no determination has been made at this time as to how parking in Lot 6 will be divided.