Appalachian State Director of Parking and Traffic Barry Sauls addressed the Student Government Association (SGA) about several issues at its meeting on Tuesday night.

The concern that is drawing the most attention is the problem with the lack of parking on campus. Sauls discussed the possibility of building a parking deck somewhere on campus.

“We are looking at putting a parking deck on Rivers Street near the ATMs,” said Sauls. He also mentioned that the traffic department had discussed building a parking deck at the driving range, but the land is not fit to build on.

There are two primary concerns with building a parking deck on campus: There is a major problem finding a place to build on campus, and parking decks are very expensive.

Sauls emphasized that ASU does not have the ability to build like a school such as UNC-Charlotte. The land in Charlotte is much more stable and vast than in Boone. There are limited places in Boone where it is safe to build a parking deck, due to the lack of stability of the land that will be used as the foundation. “ASU is unique from other (North Carolina) universities in that we have geological concerns that they don’t have at other places,” he said.

Sauls also discussed the financing that is involved with building more parking spaces. “A lot of people don’t understand the costs involved,” he explained. Building a one-level parking lot will cost an estimated $1,500 to $2,500 per spot, while a parking deck will cost $10,000 to $13,000 per spot for a deck with 500 parking spots, he said.

North Carolina does not provide funds for parking in any situation, so the new project(s) will have to be funded privately. Sauls said that the money would probably come from a loan.

Sauls claimed that the proposal to demolish Whitener and build a parking deck is a rumor, but has not been ruled out.

Aside from the proposed new parking, Sauls went over problems with freshman parking and traffic tickets.

The possibility of banning freshman parking at ASU has gotten a great deal of attention among students lately. 

Sauls said that getting rid of freshman parking is not a possibility. He referred to problems that arose in the early 1980s when ASU banned freshmen from parking, and freshmen still brought their cars to Boone and overloaded the town’s parking capacity. “We can not ban (freshmen) from bringing their cars to Boone,” he said.

When asked about the policy of the traffic patrol on campus, Sauls said that the traffic officers went around campus in a regular cycle and checked each parking spot at each lot for illegal parking.

According to Sauls, the traffic patrol is on duty from 7:30 a.m. until midnight. 

He said that there have been recent problems with people parking in fire lanes around campus and that the fire department has the authority to have cars towed from these areas.

If students wish to dispute a parking fine or have any other questions or comments, Sauls encourages them to contact him at 262-2878 or e-mail him at saulsbd @ appstate.edu.