All faculty and staff parking decals will cost about $8 more per semester starting May 1.
A 7 percent increase in decal prices will fund the construction of the 14th campus parking garage, said Scott Fox, the director of Transportation and Parking Services.
The new garage will be built near the existing faculty and staff lot, the Commuter Lot, located on Gale Lemerand Drive and has a maximum budget of $34.2 million with a planned completion date of January 2020, according to Alligator archives.
The price increase amounts to paying about 50 cents per week for orange and blue staff decals.
The change will impact only faculty and staff, not students, because the state, which approves campus construction projects like the new garage, instructed UF not to raise student fees, Fox said.
Alternative revenue sources that were considered included raising the price for parking fines or metered parking, he said.
Fox said prices will gradually rise over a five-year period instead of increasing by a large percentage all at once.
Tammy Tucker, a UF Health employee, parks at the lot on Gale Lemerand and said the new garage would help alleviate some of the extra stress she feels while trying to find a parking space after 7:30 a.m. However, she said the new spots may just get taken up anyway by the 500 additional faculty and staff UF is hiring.
“It’s a little bit much when you’re not even guaranteed a parking spot,” Tucker, 43, said. “Paying to park to be able to work is, to me, something novel in itself.”
Contact Eliott Nasby at enasby@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter at @_ElohEl.
