Faculty, staff slated to pay more to park

By Cynthia Lee

UCLA Transportation is proposing to raise monthly fees for 2008-09 on parking permits most used by faculty and staff as well as the daily entry fee.

The department needs fee increases to cover, among other expenses, the cost of major maintenance and significant repairs to parking structures as well as the higher cost of gasoline and compressed natural gas used by its commuter vanpools and shuttle buses.

Beginning July 1, yellow and disability permits are slated to rise $2 per month to $63, while blue permits are likely to increase $4 and X permits $6, to $79 and $115 respectively. The daily entry fee for the main campus is proposed to go up $1, to $9. Visitors to the UCLA Medical Plaza and the new Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center are scheduled to pay a $10 entry fee to cover the cost of valets and valet assistance.

All staff and faculty permit holders would pay the new fees, except for those individuals for whom the university is engaged in collective bargaining negotiations. For them, parking fee increases would be implemented based on the final agreements negotiated between the university and each bargaining unit.

"We raise the parking permit fees just about every year in order to keep the fee increases relatively small from year to year," said Rene Fortier, department director. The campus may submit comments for 30 days; then a final notice of the fee increases will be sent out.

Two- and three-person carpools will not pay more, said Fortier, who wants to encourage more people to try them. "Unfortunately, in line with the national trend, there's been a decline in carpooling," Fortier said. "But our vanpool program has grown significantly. In the last three years, we've added over 100 seats to the vanpool program, and we're running at 97-98% occupancy, with waitlists for many of the vans."

The department, which is taking in roughly $41.2 million in revenue this fiscal year, has tried to keep fees down by deferring some maintenance, but there are urgent projects that cannot wait, and with 2008-09 expenses projected at more than $43 million, a fee increase is needed, Fortier explained.

Shane White, professor of dentistry and chair of the Faculty Welfare Committee, which reviewed the proposal, maintains that costs directly and indirectly attributable to parking only account for three-quarters of parking fee revenue. To support alternative transit, UCLA pays a "disproportionately large amount of subsidies," compared to other UC campuses, he said. "UCLA is also the only UC campus where ground rent, $4 million annually, is paid by Parking Services from parking revenues to the university administration."

The Staff Assembly board also met with administrators on the proposal. "Increases can be a hardship for visitors and UCLA community members," said Assembly President Sabrina Lux, who praised the department for trying to keep fees low. "Hopefully it forces us all to think creatively about new ways to get to campus that can save people money, help our environment and utilize the many great programs already in place."

According to Fortier, employees will still be paying considerably less than the average $135 monthly rates and $11 daily rates charged by nearby commercial lots, as well as the current UC Berkeley rate of $93 for a yellow permit and $128 monthly for blue.

The good news for UCLA bus riders is that the subsidized transit pass programs have been expanding. In addition to the Santa Monica Big Blue Bus, Culver City Bus, Go Metro and LADOT, UCLA has added the City of Santa Clarita Transit, with Transportation paying 50% of the monthly pass.