In response to reduced state funding, Wichita State University will end its lease agreement on a park-and-ride lot at 21st Street and Oliver at the conclusion of the spring semester. The move comes as WSU anticipates a major increase in main campus parking spaces by the end of the year. The information was shared last week at a WSU Student Government Association meeting.

The closure of the 21st Street lot will help ensure that funding is available for a proposed parking structure near the heart of campus -- without raising parking fees for the 2016-17 academic year. The parking structure will be located immediately south of the Rhatigan Student Center.

The move will also help ensure that the WSU Shuttle System, which is largely funded with state money, will continue during the 2016-17 academic year, offering free park-and-ride service from the Hughes Metropolitan Complex at 29th and Oliver. 

Andy Schlapp, executive director of university operations, said the decrease in funding has forced the university to make hard choices about how to use available resources to best serve students, faculty, staff and visitors. 

"We intend to be responsive to requests for a parking garage option,” Schlapp said. “But the funding climate makes it difficult to pursue that goal without sacrificing the satellite lot. The Metropolitan Complex will continue to serve the needs of commuters who don’t purchase a parking permit."

Schlapp said WSU constantly evaluates parking on campus based upon student input, and reviews projects closely to make sure they align with students needs and concerns. 

With input received from WSU Student Government Association, planners are reviewing the current allocation and distribution of green, green/yellow and yellow parking spaces and assessing the feasibility of adding shuttle stops to lessen the impact for commuters who currently park in the 21st Street and Oliver lot.

The 21st Street lot was leased in August 2014 from Extra Space Management Inc., which runs a storage facility in the adjacent retail space. But the lot cost the university more than planned because the paving surface was not designed to handle bus traffic. Damage to the surface of the lot forced the university to spend nearly $170,000 in unexpected repair and maintenance costs during the time it served campus.

The lot will continue to serve the WSU community through mid-May, when shuttle service ends for the summer. The 21st and Oliver stop will be removed from the shuttle system’s Metroplex Route when service resumes in the fall.

Record number of parking spaces

Emily Patterson, associate director of Facilities Planning, said the university anticipates a substantial increase in surface parking on the main campus during the fall semester, with 869 new parking spaces in service by the end of 2016. 

The increase will happen as the first facilities on WSU’s Innovation Campus are completed this fall. Plans include:

• An expansion of Lot 27, which formerly served Wheatshocker Apartments and has been closed during the construction process. Lot 27 will reopen in August with 140 green/yellow-permitted spaces, and the expansion will add 53 new spaces in November. 
• A new 720-space lot -- including 270 green/yellow-permitted spaces -- to be opened in November on the east side of the Experiential Engineering Building. The lot will be accessed from the new Innovation Boulevard that will connect 17th Street to Mike Oatman Drive.
• A doubling of the Marcus Welcome Center parking area with 112 new spaces available in November. 

"When these projects are completed, the number of main campus parking spaces will be the largest in WSU history – easily exceeding levels prior to the construction of Shocker Hall," Patterson said.

Go to wichita.edu/parking for more information on campus parking and the WSU Shuttle System.