Morgan Dobbins

Deputy Campus Editor

Last Monday, Feb. 18, leaders from the Inter-Residence Hall Council (IRHC) and Student Government Association (SGA) met with Florida State University Transportation & Parking Services (TAPS) regarding proposed increases to student parking fees.

Currently,FSU charges a transportation access fee at a rate of $8.90 per credit hour. Compared to other schools, this rate is slightly lower. University of Central Florida charges students $9.10 per credit hour while UF charges $9.44 per credit hour.

This fee provides funding to support the Seminole Express, Nole Cab, S.A.F.E. Connection and StarMetro buses, as well as parking lot and garage maintenance and upkeep. Nearly 75 percent of the TAPS budget is funded through the transportation access fee.

Even with this fee, FSU TAPS is looking for other ways to increase their income. As an auxiliary unit of the university, they do not receive state funding and must generate any needed monies for new garages, maintenance and more.

The current projected budget for the 2018-2019 school year is about $12.7 million. The projected expenses are the exact same amount, meaning they will break even. Nearly one third, around $4 million, goes towards repaying bonds towards the parking garage debt.

A parking garage costs around $20 million to build. Individual parking spots at FSU cost around $20,000, meaning each student should be paying around $180 per month in parking fees. The main issue with charging a flat rate is that some students do not use FSU transportation and/or parking, but they still are charged the fees for them.

In the past few years, TAPS has increased parking meter rates and event parking from $3.25 to $5.00 as a way to bring in more income. Projected future increases in expenses include increased transit costs, costs related to deferred maintenance, increased taxes and debt for future parking facilities.

Some of the challenges that TAPS currently faces is less parking, more traffic, neighborhood connections – side walks, bus connections and bike lanes – and finding funds for needed improvement. Many of the parking garages are in need of maintenance, which explains some of the leakage and flooding issues.

Currently, 20 percent of FSU's property is used for vehicle storage, but that number could change since some surface lots could eventually be converted to building spaces. The main issue is not parking supply, but parking demand, since many students do not want to park in inconvenient locations.

FSU has 11,000 parking spots but has given out around 22,000 permits. While this seems alarming, students come and go from campus, meaning all spaces are generally not used at one time.

FSU TAPS wants to modernize the system and make it more sustainable by providing flexible parking options, improving technology, adjusting allocation strategies and changing how parking is priced.

Part of this change to a more sustainable transit system has already been announced. FSU is switching to a fleet of electric buses. FSU TAPS plans to encourage more students to use the bus system by providing Wi-Fi, smart-phone charging and improved accessibility for riders with physical challenges.

The main change would be in separating commuters from residents (those who live on campus). Current garages and lots would be separated to commuter or resident lots, with overnight parking shifting to resident spaces.

The proposed price for residents would be $150/year and $100/year for commuters. For comparison, at UF, both residents and commuters pay a $160 permit fee, while at UCF, commuters pay $100.68 and residents pay $151.02.

There are still some kinks to work out, such as how to handle Summer C residents. Current students will be prioritized over incoming students, meaning freshmen may not have as much parking available.

Another change would include changes related to service vehicles. TAPS plans to limit parking permit sales and improve enforcement of broken down service vehicles. Through updating and improving technology and enforcement, more illegally parked vehicles can be moved.

With the increase of funds, FSU TAPS plans to start paving gravel lots that are going to remain parking lots, perform garage conditions appraisals, address the issues of deferred maintenance, improve facility safety and security and start a construction reserve for the next garage.

“It’s quite a big difference. If we want to make improvements — and I don’t think anybody here is happy with the current parking system today — we know we have to get demand down,” FSU Transportation and Parking Services Director Matt Inman said. “We know we have to prove operations and maintenance. The only way to do that is to have more funds.”

These changes are being proposed for next fall, but first, the state legislature must approve allowing FSU TAPS to impose a fee. TAPS is also looking to change the law so that in the future they may go to the board of trustees for proposed changes to prices instead of the legislature.

Legislative session begins March 1 and the goal is for a legislative meeting to occur towards the end of March.