Height ordinance to affect parking

By BETH BAUMGARDNER
Collegian Staff Writer

If an ordinance before the State College Borough Council is approved, students might be spending more time underground.

Along with building heights, the proposed ordinance will restrict the construction of surface parking lots, instead encouraging the use of underground lots.

Council member Janet Knauer proposed the ordinance to limit the height of buildings, including apartment structures, to four stories. By designing structures to meet various incentives, such as the construction of underground parking facilities or sharing surface parking lots with other buildings, developers can add up to two more stories onto their buildings.

Knauer said though this may mean tenants cannot have their cars parked next to their apartments, it is a tradeoff they should make for the convenience of living downtown.

Danielle Royer (senior-management science and information systems) said she needs her car, especially now because she is interviewing at businesses outside of town. But it would be difficult to provide a space for everyone living downtown.

"I have a (parking) spot and it's with the complex, but I could see that it could be a problem area," said Royer, who lives in Fairmount East Apartments, 203 E. Fairmount Ave., where she parks in an underground lot.

Knauer said she has heard complaints from students who cannot park at their apartments and from permanent residents who say students are parking illegally or in other people's spots.

There may be as little as one parking spot per five roommates of a downtown apartment, and that spot may come at an extra charge, said Jean Welling, staff assistant for the Office of Greek and Community Life.

"If the building has 50 apartments there may be 25 (parking) spots," Welling said. "It's a problem."

Knauer agrees downtown parking is a problem. Surface space is limited and valuable, and therefore cannot be used for parking lots, she said.

People who want parking spots should live in apartment units outside of town, Knauer said. Downtown spaces are wasted by students' cars which are only occasionally used to go home or shopping, she added.

"People who live downtown because they want to be close to the university shouldn't have cars," Knauer said. "The downtown parking (should not be) used for storage."