UNC is moving away from most of its free on-campus parking after 5 p.m. The university is implementing new weeknight parking regulations, which are expected to start next school year.
The Weeknight Parking Program is the most recent step in UNC Transportation and Parking’s five-year plan to generate revenue for the department. After being approved by the Board of Trustees in 2011, the school will soon require permits to park cars in certain campus lots during the evening and overnight.
Cheryl Stout, the director of Transportation and Parking, says her department met with a variety of people to learn how, when and why people return to campus during the evening.
“We worked with some groups to make sure there were appropriate options for different community-based activities on campus at night,” says Stout.
From 5 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. on Monday through Thursday, people will need to have weeknight permits. Those who already have daytime permits for parking lots will not need to buy a new pass, but students, employees, visitors and anyone else parking during the evenings will need to purchase one of these weeknight passes.
All students beyond first-year undergraduates are eligible for passes with fees already being paid. A variety of other options will be available for employees or others who are regularly parking on campus on weeknights.
Stout says visitors will need some sort of credential too, but their process involves purchasing a one-night pass instead of the required permits.
“We’ll have a number of options for short-term parking,” she says, “but we’ll also have an opportunity for folks who don’t have a permit or may not be a student to purchase a dollar-a-night [ticket] if they’re coming to campus.”
Stout says Transportation and Parking is planning to provide educational meetings and information during the Weeknight Parking Program’s first six months. The leeway period will provide people unaware of the new program time to buy weeknight passes.
“We’ll be working to develop that sort of education program to just let people we find without permits [know] that a permit is required,” says Stout, “and to give the community some time to be educated on the system as we move forward in the program next fall.”
The university has not announced yet which campus lots will require permits for the Weeknight Parking Program. The regulations will go through their final approval during the Board of Trustees meeting on April 3 and will be enforced starting August 15.
One wonders how this will impact attendees of evening Playmakers and Carolina Performing Arts events, where currently specific campus lots are referenced for free event parking