Parking again in line of fire

PROVO — A few weeks after facing a jam-packed room of steamed Brigham Young University students, the Provo City Council is bracing for more.

BYU students get another chance to give city leaders an earful on Monday night, when the council will present them with a plan to limit parking on the streets south of campus to those with city-issued permits.

For decades, those streets have been a favorite place for students to park and walk to the classroom buildings that dominate the southern end of campus.

Those commuters add to parking congestion created by landlords who violate city code requirements by not providing enough off-street parking for their tenants. BYU has tried to ease the problem by making all campus parking free. Many students prefer to park south of campus because it is closer to their classes than empty parking lots at the Marriott Center or LaVell Edwards Stadium.

The proposed parking permit program would stretch from the southern boundary of campus, 800 North, down to 500 North and from University Avenue over to 900 East. The city calls the area the North Joaquin Neighborhood, which it wants to absorb as much student housing as possible.

BYU students passionately objected last month when the City Council approved two parking permit programs near Seven Peaks Water on the east side of Provo. The programs, effective Jan. 1, banned daytime parking in one neighborhood dominated by condominiums populated with students and overnight parking in another.

In one sense, the latest proposed parking permit program is inevitable. The City Council committed itself to a permit program when it approved a new, 950-student apartment complex at 500 North and 600 East called Joaquin Village.

City ordinance now states that a certificate of occupancy for Joaquin Village will not be issued "until a parking permit program is adopted by the city."

"That really forces the city to deal with the issue of parking in the Joaquin neighborhood," Provo Community Development director Gary McGinn said.

On the other hand, the ordinance does not outline what the program will look like. It could range from the status quo to the program proposed by city staff — 1,500 parking permits for 1,000 spaces on the streets.

The first 214 permits, all free, would go to the homeowners who live in 107 houses in the neighborhood. Each of those homeowners would have the opportunity to purchase an additional permit.

The remaining 1,180 permits would be sold for $25 each to tenants, mostly BYU students, who do not have off-site parking provided by landlords.