VCU to create 730 parking spaces with new deck next May

Members of the VCU community won’t need 20 minutes to find a good parking space close to campus soon.

In addition to the West Broad Street and the West Main Street parking decks on the academic campus, a third parking deck will be constructed on the corner of West Cary, Harrison and Parkwood streets. The deck will replace the existing 250-car MM Parking lot, a surface lot across the street from Cary Street Field.

“The challenge of an urban university is that there is never enough parking,” said Brian J. Ohlinger, associate vice president for facilities management. “This is an opportunity to triple the parking and it’s important to have parking for that side of campus.”

Ohlinger said since the opening of the new life science building, there has been an increased demand for parking by students and faculty.

“With this new deck, we encourage VCU students, faculty and staff to park there instead of the surrounding areas,” he said.

Ohlinger said there are other several reasons for the deck.

“It’s much safer. The car is nicely protected from all the elements. It’s closer to campus,” he said. “And it reduces the aggression factor with our neighbors because their parking is being taken up by the VCU community.”

It also will relieve congestion on surrounding neighborhood streets.

People from student housing and business services were queried to identify needs of VCU.

“We identified that we need more parking,” Ohlinger said. “We submitted a plan to the vice presidents and president. They in turn, submitted the plan to the Board of Visitors.”

The Board of Visitors approved the plan in May 2001 and Virginia Gov. Mark Warner authorized the project. The project became part of the Capital Plan of the 2002-2004 state budget.

“The deck is part of our long-range construction plans,” said William Johnson, parking & transportation manager.

The project includes a four-level, 240,000-square-foot parking deck for 730 vehicles. There will be 3,000-square-foot of storage space and 1,000-square-foot for office space for VCU’s Parking & Transportation.

Deck construction will begin May 19, two days after graduation, and it should last a year.

The deck will cost nearly $9 million to construct. The annual operating costs are estimated to be $286,000.

The construction of the deck will done in phases, Ohlinger said. By January 2004, 250 parking spaces, a third of the capacity of the deck will be ready for parking.

“In doing that (construction), the construction will be impacting one semester,” he said. “There will be no parking at the new deck for the Fall 2003 semester because of construction.”

The deck, Ohlinger said, is scheduled for completion May 2004.

Ohlinger said by having a portion complete by 2004, the whole project will be completed in May.