UA Parking and Transportation Services is raising visitor parking rates for the coming academic year and going forward with evening permits, while most daily parking pass rates will remain the same.

Visitor rates rise 25 cents to $1.25 an hour on Aug. 19.

"It's been a dollar an hour for quite a while," said Marlis Davis, director of Parking and Transportation Services. She said the fee hike has been in the works for some time as part of the long-range program of the department.

Davis said a parking and transportation committee had long discussed evening permits for the garages and gated parking areas around campus.

An evening garage permit will now give access to any of the three garages on campus from 3:30 p.m. on, Davis said.

"It's cheaper than $1 an hour," Davis said.

The evening permits for the gated areas are a way of combating overcrowding in those lots, Davis said. She said in some of the gated lots at night there was "chaos," with drivers parking in handicapped spaces illegally and blocking fire department access.

The evening permits cost $50 a year, according to Parking and Transportation's newsletter. Davis said 600 free parking spaces will still be available at night, and that any person with a daily permit for a gated lot or a garage can park in those spaces at all times.

The department found it unnecessary to raise prices for most daily permits, Davis said.

"When we can, we try to keep them stable," Davis said.

Prices for the Main Gate Garage, the Cherry Avenue Garage, and the Park Avenue Parking Garage will go up $50, $25, and $25, respectively.

"Garage permits need to reach an equal price, because they are equal in use and demand," Davis said.

The Second Street Garage permit is currently most expensive, costing $375 annually.

"It seems like a way of getting more money out of us," said Susan Ramdorsingh, art history junior, "It (Parking and Transportation) is really confusing."

The department is an auxiliary of the university, meaning it does not receive money or have any returns, Davis said. She said every dollar raised is spent on parking and transportation.

The department spends $1.5 million on the free Cat Tran Shuttle service, and underwrites the Sun Tran bus pass system $675,000 a year, Davis said.

"There is an administrative need to support alternative transportation," Davis said.

The department also plans to continue parking expansion, Davis said. She said the department's old offices on East Sixth Street will be demolished, and a new lot will be built there.

Davis said the process of demolishing the building is underway. The project will include landscaping , the expansion of a lot behind the Student Recreation Center, and the removal of a house on East Seventh Street, she said.

The cost of the project is about $200,000, Davis said.

"I don't expect to see any parking spaces there until the spring semester," Davis said.

The department also undertakes its first phases of upkeep on the three oldest parking structures: the Cherry Avenue Garage, the Second Street Garage, and the Park Avenue Garage, Davis said. She said all are nearly 10 years old.

That project will cost $300,000 and include repair on cracks in the concrete, and repainting and resealing of the joints that hold the structure together, Davis said.

The work is "typical" for a garage that is 10 years old, Davis said. She said she does not expect use of the garage to be disrupted.

In supporting alternative transportation and adding spaces, the department wants adequate parking for students, but does not want enough for all drivers, Davis said.

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