Parking garage will replace lot near Chaffin apartments, Morgan, Lewis houses

Officials are working on the parking problem - but their new project is not intended to directly benefit students.

The $41 million Children's Way Parking Garage, on which the university plans to start construction this summer, will be built in Lot 30, which houses 182 F-spaces along Children's Way between Highland Quad and the Blair School of Music. The garage, which will be proposed to the Board of Trust at its May meeting, is meant to relieve some of the parking problems the medical center is having in meeting the demand for convenient spaces.

"All our efforts are meant to reduce the amount of congestion the shuttles cause," said Judson Newbern, assistant vice chancellor for campus planning and construction, "anything we could do to reduce ridership and increase parking."

Newbern said public transportation, shuttles from a new 100 Oaks Shopping Mall location and carpooling incentives "are all part of the parking answer." But ultimately, the university has determined the lot near Lewis and Morgan houses and the Chaffin apartments is the best location for a new garage for the medical center faculty.

"We looked at building near the police and security buildings or near the sports complexes and put the fields (like tennis courts) on top of the garages," Newbern said. "(But) staff members felt like they couldn't walk the distance. Now it's just one block away."

An equal number of F-spaces will be relocated to the 25th Avenue Garage during construction, which is scheduled to conclude in August 2010, and Newbern said the university is trying to consider all of students' concerns, from noise to the garage's visual appeal.

Seven of the 11 stories in the garage will be underground, for example, to best take advantage of the space, reduce the noise by working in a hole and make the structure lower in height. Newbern, Dean of Students Mark Bandas and Vanderbilt Student Government President Joseph Williams all said open forums and student feedback were important to the project going smoothly.

"We'll say what the restrictions are and what the tradeoffs are, and students will hopefully respond to that," said Newbern, who was also involved with the construction on Peabody campus, when several students had complaints about the amount of noise created by the construction of The Commons.

"I found when working at Peabody that when we share restrictions, students would give feedback, and we would hit a sweet spot," Newbern said.

Student leaders like Williams have already raised their concerns to the administration, and Williams said student government representatives and student leaders will "have a place at the table" to discuss concerns in the fall.

"While this is undoubtedly beneficial for the university as a whole since the med center is so vital to the overall success of the university, I'm very hesitant in thinking that this is a good thing for students," Williams said. "The fact of the matter is that as it stands now, it's worse for undergrads in the short term and no guarantee to be better in the long term."

Newbern and Williams said they are working on the primary concern of noise, citing sound barriers and convenient construction times as efforts the university is making.

"Another short term concern is clearly noise ... and through expressing this concern, I can say campus planning, the dean of students, Office of Housing, everyone realized this will be a problem," Williams said, "and I have full faith they will take every possible step to make the situation as good as possible."

The benefit of the garage for students in two years is still to be determined according to Newbern, who said while "they hope to have a net gain in student spaces in the lot," traffic patterns are going to be monitored over the next two years to determine the final location of the F-spots.

Williams said VSG will voice student concerns throughout the construction.

"What I'm optimistic about is, while losing some convenience (now), in the long term, if we go about this diplomatically and seriously in lobbying for the students, we can get a lot more F-spots in two years," Williams said. "A permanent promise of spots there would do wonders and do a lot to legitimate the short term costs."

But Newbern and other university officials maintain that future parking will be addressed after they see the impact of the parking changes, which could include making Children's Way a through street.

"There are a number of variables to mix and match to figure out the right formula," Newbern said.             

-Sara Gast can be reached at sara.m.gast@vanderbilt.edu