Officials See Smooth Road for Night Permits

But administrators will monitor the program to ensure that it runs smoothly.

Cheryl Stout, assistant director of parking services, said Wednesday evening that more specific details of a comprehensive night parking plan that top administrators approved Tuesday morning now have been developed.

Officials hope to put the plan into effect at the start of the 2002-03 academic year.

Under the proposal, which still needs to be approved by the UNC Board of Trustees, students, faculty and staff who do not own a daytime permit will be required to purchase a night parking permit in order to park on campus after 5 p.m.

The permits would cost $122 per academic year for students and $166 per calendar year for faculty and staff.

But night parking would give permit holders access to parking spots on a first-come, first-serve basis, instead of an assigned lot as with day parking, Stout said.

Day permit holders, who are restricted to certain lots from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., also will be able to park in any lot after 5 p.m.

"I think we have plenty of capacity on campus," she said. "You might not be able to park in the exact spot that you want, but you will be able to find something."

Stout said the system would give permit holders the freedom to park in different spaces each night rather than limiting them to a single lot.

"This allows people to move around based on their needs," she said.

Some gated lots, however, would not be accessible to night permit holders. Caldwell, Steele, Swain and Morehead lots would be reserved for visitors and faculty parking, Stout said.

Students and employees who do not purchase night permits or do not have day permits would be able to access free night parking in the Bell Tower lot and the S-11 lot on South Campus.

Stout said she is not worried about a potential night parking shortage that could result from day permit holders remaining on campus in the evenings.

The number of students and faculty who have day permits and park on campus at night has been taken into account, Stout said.

But because next year would be the first year of the program, Carolyn Elfland, associate vice chancellor for campus services, said they would monitor the program and make changes if necessary.

Stout said officials would not sell more permits than there are available spaces and will not base their predictions on the idea that permit holders would likely not come to campus every night.

"I think that would be a faulty assumption," she said. "Lots of people who come occasionally will go to short-term parking."

Only students, faculty and staff who come to campus on a regular basis likely would buy a permit, she said.

Stout said night parking permits would be distributed through the same process as day permits, which is administered by the Department of Public Safety.

Preregistration for both day and night parking permits would begin in April.

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.