University of New Mexico Parking Improvement

Project:
A Proposal to UNM Parking and Transportation
Services
______________________________________________________________________________

Introduction
Parking is a large issue that students, staff, and visitors of the University of New
Mexico face every day. Over 50,000 students, faculty, staff, and visitors are on UNM
campus daily (Albuquerque Journal). A common problem that occurs every year is not
enough parking spaces to accommodate the demand of students and staff driving to
school. The residential areas around UNM are faced with the overflow of people who
cannot find parking, and sometimes residents cannot even get into their driveways. It is
about time that UNM does something to solve this lack of parking, and provide
convenience to those who have to park on campus every day.
As members of the Student Government Association at the University of New
Mexico, we know first-hand about the parking problems on UNM campus. Our main
focus is on the on-campus residential students who park in the designated residential
parking areas. It has become a reoccurring problem for students to be unable to find a
parking spot due to an increasing number of residents, and not enough parking spaces.
As more and more students are enrolling in the University of New Mexico, parking
spaces are becoming limited and harder to find for students, even for those who have a
permit.

In this proposal, we suggest building a new parking structure that would be

reserved for students living on campus. Building a new parking garage for residential
students would allow for more spaces for those students to park without having to
spend half an hour looking for a spot to park, or having to park somewhere else entirely.
We have already begun the primary research and, with the approval of the
University of New Mexicos Parking and Transportation Services, we hope to move
further with this project and come up with the best possible blueprint for a new parking
garage at the most cost-efficient price. We want the help and support of UNMs parking
services to build a new parking garage for the students of UNM.

Current Parking Problems

Most students at UNM will tell you one of the biggest problems they face on
campus is that of parking. The problem is that UNM main campus has between 30,00050,000 visitors per day, and only about 13,000 parking spaces (Albuquerque Journal).
This is especially a problem for UNM residents. The parking lots for residents,
designated R, are scattered around a large area of the north end of campus, all the
way from Central to Lomas. They take up a large section of the main campus grounds,
using a lot of valuable space, and their scattered nature means residents may have to
park a considerable distance away from their dorm. Despite the large amount of space
the R lots take up, residents are still not guaranteed that they will even find a space. If
you visit the R lots you will always find several cars circling around, looking for a parking
space, but they are often filled up.

Another issue is that of crime for the residents who park their cars on campus. The
resident parking lot is next to Central, a high crime area. During the fall semester of
2015, car thefts tripled compared to the same time last year. Channel 13 News
reported: police said from the beginning of the school year in August until the end of
October, 28 cars have vanished. In the same time frame last year, only nine
disappeared (KRQE News 13). This is a major concern for residents, who must leave
their cars parked on campus during the night, and many have resorted to installing a
Club anti-theft steering wheel locking device on their cars.

Parking is also a problem for non-resident students, most of whom park in the
South Lot, because a large portion of available parking on campus is designated for
residents. The South Lot is located off campus, approximately 1.5 miles away, which
requires that the students take a shuttle from the parking lot to the campus. This is a
very inefficient solution to the parking problem. Students first wait at the stop for the

shuttle to arrive, typically 5 minutes, then it is a 10 minute ride to the campus. If you add
this time up over the course of a typical 16 week semester, consisting of five days per
week, two shuttle trips per day, this amounts to 20 hours of time lost taking the shuttle
for each student. With a new parking structure for the residents, this would make much
of the current resident parking space available for by non-resident students
Although the shuttles run frequently, this raises another issue of the expense of
keeping shuttles running constantly. The shuttles are older model diesel school buses
which get about 3.6. Mpg, requiring a tremendous amount of fuel costs, in addition to
labor and maintenance costs.

Our Proposed Solution

Our solution to fix this parking problem at UNM is to build a parking structure for
the residential students. We believe that a parking structure would help solve the
parking situation on campus by providing more spaces for residential students without in
an efficient manner. Below are some steps towards making this structure possible:
Step 1: Conduct a Parking Study
Typically, the best first step is to bring in a third party to help validate the need for
a parking garage before you start having one built (Build a Parking Garage Cost.). Our
first step in this project is to commission a parking study to help find the right garage to
build. A parking study will help provide us with enough information to help us make the
best possible business decision. We came up with several benefits that promote the
building a parking garage that we will discuss in the Cost and Benefits section.

Step 2: Determine Garage Site

The next step is to determine where the parking garage should be located. Just
like with a building, proper siting of a parking garage is critical to its success and how it
complements the master plan for UNM campus. If properly designed, a parking garage
can stand in one location for decades, making it a major fixture of its surroundings.
Our proposed parking structure will be located on the southeast area of the main
campus lot, on the corner of Central and Girard. This structure will have 400 spaces and
will feature 300 resident parking spaces, as well as 100 visitor parking spaces. It will
occupy a small amount of the current resident lot, R Lot, as it will also occupy what is
currently an empty area that is not being used. This location on Central will make it ideal
for traffic in and out of the structure.

PROPOSED LOCATION FOR THE STRUCTURE

Step 3: Build Based on Budget

Ultimately, site location decisions come down to cost. Some sites are simply
more affordable to build on that others due to footprint, topography, soil conditions, and
other factors. Once the best location, that is both an affordable and effective site, is
found, it is important to determine the size of the garage that is affordable to build. After
some research we found a website (Build a Parking Garage Cost) that breaks down
the costs of building a parking structure per square foot. The cost per square foot can
be calculated to determine how many parking spaces can be afforded.
Step 4: Hire the Right Team
Once the planning process to validate the need for a garage is complete along
with having determined where the best location for the garage is, the next step is to
engage a firm to design the garage. It is recommended that the design be led by an
established parking consultant. Parking consultants help steer the design in the right
direction for a successful parking project. We plan on working with McCarthy Building
Companies located here in Albuquerque to complete the project. McCarthy has worked
with UNM before to build the Yale Parking Structure, and their work has proven to be of
high quality and was done in a timely manner (mccarthy.com). McCarthy is also an
affordable and reliable source of partnership.

Qualifications
The UNM Student Government Association (SGA) is a student founded and run
organization that acts as a liaison between students and the administration, faculty, and
staff of the University of New Mexico. The purpose of the group is to represent the

expressed wishes of the students of UNM, as well as to address and attempt to solve
student and campus issues. Our mission is to work to provide UNM students with a high
quality living experience.
The UNM SGA has experienced leadership in organizing events to improve
student and campus life through the creation of clubs and organizations, and hosting
weekly meetings to discuss and come up with solutions for various issues. In addition,
SGA is active in organizing and hosting fundraisers to fund their projects. Previous
experience includes:

Submitted a proposal to UNM Campus Safety Services to increase the number of

emergency phones on campus,

Held student workshops to increase campus safety awareness.

Organized Fall and Spring study days and worked with Zimmerman library to
provide free coffee and doughnuts during finals week.

Hosted a 5k run to raise donations for the Cancer Foundation for New Mexico
As members of the SGA who live or have lived on campus, we feel that our

experience qualifies us to represent the students of UNM in proposing to build a new

parking structure for the residential students. We have researched several solutions on
how to fix the parking problem, and what the costs and benefits of the project will be.
Our group is qualified to submit this proposal because we are all currently students at
the University of New Mexico, and we share the concern about the parking situation on
campus.

Costs and Benefits

To conclude this proposal, we will discuss the costs of our plan as well as the
benefits in building a parking structure for residents on UNM campus. Below is a table
of our proposed number of parking spaces, the space needed, and the cost it will take
to build a parking structure to accommodate this amount of space.
Plan
Number of Parking Spaces

400

Square Feet Per Space

300

Cost Per Square Foot

$55.00

Total Cost

$6,600,000

The expenses of building the parking garage would eventually be paid off by the
sale of parking permits and other parking income. At $500 for 300 resident permits,
UNM Parking would be making $150,000 a year. Other income would come from visitor
parking at rates of $1.00 per half hour.
In keeping with the mission statement of the UNM Parking and Transportation
services, which is to provide access to key programs for faculty, staff, students, and
visitors through a variety of transportation services that consider the needs of each
customer, this parking structure will greatly improve the resident experience at UNM by
giving them a safer and more convenient place to park. Non-resident students will also
greatly benefit by the more available on-campus parking, saving them considerable
amounts of time in their commute to class. This will ultimately solve many of the parking
problems that have long been a source of complaints for many students.
Another benefit of this new parking structure and the decreased need for shuttles
is a reduction in the emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that contributes to

global warming. This is important because UNM has a strong commitment to the
environment. The slogan used at the residence halls is Love red, live green. By having
less shuttles running and lowering carbon emissions UNM can continue to set an
example of environmental awareness as New Mexicos flagship university.
These overall benefits are what make this parking structure an important and
worthwhile project for UNM. We thank you for taking the time to read through our
proposal. If you have any questions or comments about this document, please feel free
to contact us by phone at (505) 266-6728 or by email at SGA@unm.edu.

Works Cited
Build a Parking Garage Cost. Fixr, 2016, http://www.fixr.com/costs/build-parking-garage.
Accessed October 2016.
Clarke, Ronald. Theft of and From Cars in Parking Facilities. Center for Problem-Orientated
Policing, 2002, http://www.popcenter.org/problems/parking_garage_theft/. Accessed
October 2016.
Rush, Haley. Spike in Car Thefts at UNM have Campus Police on Alert. KRQE News 13,
http://krqe.com/2015/11/04/spike-in-car-thefts-at-unm-have-campus-police-on-alert/.
Accessed October 2016.
Quintana, Chris. Parking Problems. Albuquerque Journal, 28 Mar. 2016,
http://www.popcenter.org/problems/parking_garage_theft. Accessed October 2016.