PULLMAN, Wash.—Rate changes for parking on the Washington State University campus are effective July 1.
According to John Shaheen, Parking and Transportation Services, annual and daily parking rates were approved after a two-year review process that included an external review by a visiting peer review team and an internal review by a 15-member Parking System Review Task Force. The task force was designed to gather feedback from a wide cross-section of the campus and its members included undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff and administrators.
Daily rate increases range from 25 cents for visitors to $2 for garage parking. Annual rate increases range from $9 for mopeds to $119 for garage space. Smaller increases are planned for parking zones used primarily by students and where demand is less, larger increase will occur in high-demand parking zones and those used primarily by faculty and staff who can take advantage of savings from a pre-tax parking payroll deduction. No increases were proposed for parking meter or hourly garage rates.
The increases are needed to help cover the cost of new parking facilities and improvements and repairs to existing garages and parking lots. Those costs include an annual bond payment of $814,000 for the newly constructed Smith Center for Undergraduate Education garage and parking lot. Badly needed repairs to three of the university’s garages and deferred maintenance to other surface lots will cost $800,000 and $600,000, respectively.
Changes to approved parking fines will go into effect Aug. 1. Most parking fines are increasing by $5 to 25, depending on the infraction. Parking illegally in a disability space is increasing from $50 to $250, which coincides with the state standard.
New rates can be viewed by going to the Parking and Transportation Web site at http://www.wsu.edu/parking and clicking on “New Parking Fees and Fines.” Copies of the new rates and fines can also be obtained on request by calling 335-PARK.
