Boudah Presents Long-Term Parking Plan to Town Officials

Author: Lindsey Whitten Staff Writer

Director of Public Safety Elizabeth Boudah presented her preliminary proposal for the long-range parking plan at Middlebury College to both the College Executive Council and the Planning Commission for the town of Middlebury last week. She fashioned her plan around the eight parking principles that the Executive Council had established early last month. According to these principles, Boudah had been given "the responsibility and authority for parking planning, management, and enforcement, in accordance with these principles."

Middlebury Town Planner Fred Dunnington stated that he believed "the College has a significant parking problem." The parking crunch affects both Middlebury citizens, who have complained of student cars crowding town lots and residential streets, and town employees, who have recently spent more time ticketing and towing student cars. Boudah admitted that the "town and the College are both trying to coexist" and she shaped her plan accordingly.

Boudah introduced her plan by stating that the goal of the parking system was "to enhance the educational and environmental mission of the College." By providing adequate spaces in proximate, peripheral and remote lots with a plan to support movement and enforce violations, this proposal meets "the needs of the College and is responsible to the Town's community objectives" as stated in the master plan."

Boudah generated her proposal by studying the master plan, maps of the college and old parking and construction plans, some of which had been written by engineers. She is committed to eventually removing traffic from Old Chapel Road, but the approximately eighty spots that will be lost will need to be replaced. New lots have been suggested on the periphery of the campus, but Dunnington is suspicious of the feasibility of periphery parking unaccompanied by other changes and accommodations such as a realistic shuttle service. "Solutions which shift [vehicles] to public streets are not okay," he said.

"We want to support … peripheral parking but not when it doesn't function as reasonable for the demand," Dunnington said, adding that the College won't succeed as a pedestrian campus unless a convenient shuttle service served the core of the campus with frequent pickups at least every ten minutes. He stated that shuttles servicing the peripheral parking places would be necessary for students who have to carry luggage or groceries or for students who have to get to their car during the winter. He stressed the fact that public transit is more "energy and environmentally efficient."

Boudah discussed the importance of remodeling some of the campus infrastructure in order to make Middlebury more conducive to pedestrians. There have been a rising number of bikers in recent years and if cars are forbidden to drive through the campus, the number of bikers will most likely increase. The Department of Public Safety is considering how to make more bike paths, more bike racks in convenient locations and perhaps even a bike maintenance facility on campus.

Bike safety and regulation has also become an issue. Boudah is beginning to address the need for more supervision over the rising bike population. She has "concerns with how people ride and store their bikes." She also plans on "an increase to fines and towing fees" for vehicles and a prohibition against students parking on town roads or other town parking facilities. She is also working on the need for more sidewalks, crosswalks, lighting and safety phones on campus.

Boudah said she has decided not to alot specific parking lots or spots to members of the faculty and staff. She feels this is too complicated from an administrative point of view and too constraining on the faculty and staff. She doesn't want to "micro-manage" the situation and she is "trying to build some flexibility and availability into the plan." There will, however, most likely be some sort of regulation on student lots, granting upperclassmen preferential placement in the most proximal parking locations.

The town is not as worried about the importance of eliminating traffic and establishing a pedestrian campus as it is about managing the student reaction to inconvenient parking. "We don't have the same concern about the adverse effects of driving around as we are with the adverse effects of ticketing and towing," Dunnington said.

The town will not approve the Atwater Commons building project until more parking is built. The additional spaces need to be available before the Ross Commons project opens, according to town officials.

Boudah plans on expanding the Wright Theatre lot, transferring the spots to faculty, staff and visitors and relocating student vehicles to the peripheral and remote lots. The Coffrin and Freeman Lots will be expanded for junior and senior student parking. The New Library Lot and Storrs Avenue will be opened when the library is completed for faculty, staff and visitors and the Ridgeline Lot will be expanded for junior and senior vehicles.

Other suggested parking areas include Porter Hospital, although Boudah admits that "this lot is considered a remote lot by students, [that is] detached from campus and campus circulation," expansion of parking at the Center for the Arts, the Fitness Center, and Bicentennial Way.

She concluded her report with a reference to marketing the new pedestrian campus plan. She suggested that the College "host pedestrian campus celebrations and provide incentives such as umbrellas, reflective tape and bands [and] partner with Health Center and Athletic Department in a heart healthy campaign."

"We were really pleased to hear [Boudah's] presentation," Dunnington commented. He believes, however, that the chance of Middlebury functioning as a pedestrian campus hinges on the success of alternative transportation methods. "The College needs to hire people who are experienced in public transport – but it's not rocket science. It works when it's more convenient and reliable."