Sacramento (CA) State University is building a 3,000 space parking garage so parking should be plentiful on the California Capital’s University campus. However no one asked where the garage was being built. It’s going on a 1,000 space surface lot.
So, during the couple of years it takes to build the garage and associated buildings, the university won’t be UP 2000 spaces, but DOWN 1000. They are expecting a parking crunch on campus.
Universities and hospitals, typically cramped for real estate, usually have this problem. They need more classroom or research space so they build it on the available land — and that’s usually a parking lot.
It means that parking becomes more dear, and something has to give. Hopefully, as in the Sac State case, a garage is going up — however in many cases garages aren’t part of the construction plan. Parking has to look elsewhere. And sometimes at St Elsewhere there is no elsewhere.
JVH
