Parking Ramp a Possibility

By Reed Kennedy

For those NCC students who drive here, they know just how frustrating finding a parking spot can be.

With a school population of just over 8,200, six parking lots are not going to be able to satisfy the needs of all the students commuting to and from school. NCC has brought forth the issue of whether or not to build a parking ramp. For most commuting students, the idea seems to hold promise.

A parking ramp at or around the direct vicinity of the NCC campus would make commuters’ drives a little easier, without the stress of finding a parking spot hanging over their heads.

Not adding to the parking issue is the fact that two of the back parking rows in lots one and two have been removed for the dumping of snow. The removing of these two rows has taken away approximately 50 spots, according to the security office.

In this case, weather and time will be the biggest factors, as it will undoubtedly be a few more months until students see the end of the snow in the parking lots. As for right now, many have resorted to parking on top of curbs, and in clearly marked no parking zones. A parking ramp would help with all these problems, but faces challenges.

A parking ramp would help ease headaches that every commuter faces when driving to NCC. The time between finding a parking space and making it to class can be slim, and sometimes finding a spot for your car can even dip into class time.

When asked about the parking situation, NCC student Dave Linder said, “I have been late to class more than once due to the lack of parking here. I try to get here early, to find a spot before everyone else. It seems the spots really only open up ten minutes before my class, and even then it seems everyone else is already waiting for every spot.”

With the addition of a parking ramp at NCC, students would find more parking options available to them, making arriving on time for class much easier, and the drive much less stressful.

The major challenge for a parking ramp here at NCC would be where to place it. As of right now, there is no clear indication of where it would go. The only real spot that has the land necessary for a ramp is as far as the overflow lot, north of the NCC campus.

When asked about the parking ramp situation, NCC President Joe Opatz said, “In the master facility plan for this year, preliminary drawings were done for stacked parking, or a parking ramp, however no timeline has been set on it.

With the possibility of the building of a parking structure comes an increase in parking fees, fifty cents for each credit. These fees are being mandated due to the lack of funding of a parking structure from the state, as no MNSCU schools receive funding for such things.”