The Oxford City Council voted to increase the price of parking on Campus, Walnut, College and Church streets to 25 cents per hour. (Alex Turvy)
Changes are in store for those parking on or near Miami University's campus, as prices for the Campus Avenue garage are anticipated to drop and certain meter prices are going up.
"Our plan for the use of the (Campus Avenue) garage anticipated that students would use it during the day," said Richard Keppler, director of parking and transportation services at Miami. "We thought $1 per hour would be acceptable to students. We thought it would be preferable to a (parking) ticket, but (police officers) are still writing out tickets."
The parking committee, a university committee that is composed of administrators and a student representative, is looking at making changes to the Campus Avenue parking garage and Keppler said this is partially because the garage isn't as popular as most originally thought it would be.
"Traffic in the garage largely depends on the events at theadmissions office," Keppler said. "Most of the traffic is prospective students and their parents."
Keppler said that the garage does see more traffic during events at the Goggin Ice Center or competitions at the Recreational Sports Center, but said that parking services still has heard complaints about the garage fee - which is current $1 and hour, with a maximum of $10 per day.
"Students have lower-cost alternatives to the garage," Keppler said, mentioning that some students illegally park on residential streets and risk getting a parking ticket.
There are three changes approved by the committee that will likely go into effect in a months' time, according to Keppler.
First, the hourly rate of parking in the garage will be reduced from $1 to 50 cents. For cars parked in the garage all day, there will be a maximum $5 charge, as opposed to the current $10 charge.
Second, a monthly voucher that is currently only available to faculty and staff will be offered to students at a rate of $25 per month. This voucher will only cover daytime parking, as the garage is closed from 2 to 6 a.m.
Third, students, staff, and faculty will be able to park in the garage overnight for a permit, which would cost $75 per month. Vehicles would also have to have semester or annual permits through the university in order to park in the garage overnight, meaning that this permit would be an additional permit for most.
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Keppler didn't say for certain when the changes would be made official, but he said the changes would take effect as soon as there are a few technical questions answered.
"The changes will be offered as soon as possible," Keppler said, adding that parking services will promote the changes via their Web site, table tents and advertisements around campus.
Miami junior and Residence Hall Association President Brendan Buholzer originally approached members of the parking committee when he realized that students were not making use of the garage.
"We just built this multimillion dollar parking garage and it's not being used," Buholzer said.
Metered spots see increase
In addition, some Oxford streets are seeing a price increase in their metered spots.
"It's not a rumor, it's true," said Oxford Police Department Lt. Bob Holzworth about the price increase for parking meters along residential streets. "We've had some calls already with people thinking that the meters are broken."
Previously, a 10-hour meter cost 25 cents for two hours. Recently though, all 10-hour parking meters have been reprogrammed to charge 25 cents an hour.
This includes most of the parking meters that aren't part of the main business district; which includes meters on Walnut, College, Church, and Campus streets.
Not all meters have been marked to reflect the price increase yet, but Holzworth said the OPD is in the process of fixing that. The reprogramming process started over winter break and as of Jan. 18, a total of about 358, or 96.3 percent of the meters have been reprogrammed. The remaining 3.7 percent should be reprogrammed by the end of next week.
The OPD will also be issuing a media release and placing information on their city's Web site once the project is completed.
"It has taken a while to get it done," Holzworth said. "Now that the colder weather has hit it makes it a little harder."
Students should be aware that with the change is more than just a price increase. After the first hour on the 10-hour parking meter is paid for, the time increments of which to pay on the meters drop to 12 minutes.
This is a change because prior to the price increase, the time would be displayed starting with the first coin inserted into the meter. Now, those parking cars must pay for that first hour in its entirety.
"Increase was approved by the Oxford City Council on Dec. 5, 2006, as part of the annual fee ordinance," Holzworth said. "It's been time for a price increase for a long, long time ... I know in my heart it's very reasonable."
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