Bond issue sought for UNLV parking

Wednesday, June 15, 2005 | 10 a.m.

UNLV officials are asking the Board of Regents to approve a bond issue of up to $13 million in order to add 850 new parking spaces to the Cottage Grove parking garage at its meeting next week.

That's more than $15,000 a space, and has raised some red flags for university regents already concerned with how parking is managed at the state's two universities.

The bonds will be paid off using parking permit fees paid by students and faculty because the state will not pay for parking garages, regents and university officials said. But some regents said it's also unfair to ask students and faculty to take on that burden when the universities are continuously taking away other parking spaces to make way for new construction projects.

"Parking has turned into such a major issue, and it's being handled on a piecemeal basis," Regent Steve Sisolak said, adding that he receives complaints all the time about the parking fees and lack of parking at UNLV and at the Community College of Southern Nevada.

Regent Mark Alden agreed, saying he would vote against the garage "on principle."

Students pay about $80 a year for parking, faculty and staff pay $160 and the university's top administrators, including President Carol Harter, pay $532 for their reserved spaces. Parking fees go up 10 percent each year per university policy, Bomotti said.

The university does need to expand the current four-level parking garage on the north side of campus because of several new buildings to be built in the next few years, Gerry Bomotti, vice president of finance for the university, said.

"We're losing some surface parking, and this will help offset some of those parking losses," Bomotti said.

The new Science, Engineering and Technology building will take up 633 spaces during construction, the new student recreation center will take up another 640 spaces, and the new Moyer Student Union will take up about 200 spaces, Bomotti said. The Greenspun College of Urban Affairs may also likely take up some spaces, and the new student services center may take up some spots during its construction phase only.

But even with the first three, that's still nearly 1,500 spaces lost, Bomotti said. There is a new Maple Street surface parking opening on the west side by the Thomas & Mack Center to offset some of those losses, and the university will have a parking shuttle running by the fall, Bomotti said.

The true cost of the parking garage expansion should also be closer to $11 million, or just under $13,000 a space, Bomotti said. The current market for construction has run costs so high on so many buildings that Bomotti said the administration wanted to be on the safe side in asking for the bond issue.

If approved by regents, UNLV officials hope to put the project out to bid and start construction on the pre-fabricated materials this fall and start construction in May 2006.