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Friday, March 29, 2024
NEWS  |  CAMPUS

Four new temporary lots will open during UF parking garage construction

<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-a95fff84-7fff-48d9-b1e5-ae41039a5c99"><span>The five temporary lots that will soon open to accommodate parking during the construction of Garage 14 on Gale Lemerand Drive. The cost for the temporary lots is projected to be around $4 million. Parking will be available to UF faculty and graduate students.</span></span></p>

The five temporary lots that will soon open to accommodate parking during the construction of Garage 14 on Gale Lemerand Drive. The cost for the temporary lots is projected to be around $4 million. Parking will be available to UF faculty and graduate students.

It’ll be easier for UF graduate students and faculty to find parking spots after four temporary lots open up in December.

The lots will provide 1,100 spaces to make up for the upcoming loss of the 600-spot commuter lot on Gale Lemerand Drive that will close in December for the construction of a parking garage, called Garage 14, said Craig Hill, the UF associative vice president for business affairs. The new temporary spaces include the 225-space lot made out of a repurposed tennis court near Flavet Field that opened in August.

When Garage 14 opens at the beginning of 2020, UF will gain another 1,400 parking spaces, Hill said. The seven-level 620,000-square-foot garage will cost about $32.2 million.

The lifespan of these temporary lots depends on campus development, Hill said.

“The campus community has grown, and the demand for parking has grown,” Hill said. “So, the inventory that was sufficient five, 10, 15 years ago is not sufficient today.”

Three of the lots will open to UF graduate students and faculty by the end of December on half of Norman Field, Fifield Field and Archer Road Field, Hill said. The final lot near Southwest 13th Street and West University Avenue will be the last to open by February because it’s waiting on city approval to be built. The construction of temporary parking will cost about $4 million. Finalized designs of the lots should be completed in the next three weeks.

“We hope it will make it easier for faculty and staff and graduate students to find parking on a daily basis,” Hill said.

Creating a new garage and temporary lots is a tactful way to deal with the pressing parking issue, said Joseph Wilson, a UF Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering associate professor.

“The parking difficulties people have are real, and they’re driven by our modern lifestyles,” Wilson said.

Contact Dana Cassidy at dcassidy@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @danacassidy_

The five temporary lots that will soon open to accommodate parking during the construction of Garage 14 on Gale Lemerand Drive. The cost for the temporary lots is projected to be around $4 million. Parking will be available to UF faculty and graduate students.

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