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Plan would renovate YSU's M2 parking structure
By Denise Dick
By DENISE DICK
youngstowN
Rather than being torn down, the Lincoln Avenue parking deck would be renovated to keep it in service for 12 to 15 more years.
Youngstown State University’s trustees finance and facilities committee voted Tuesday to endorse the plan. A formal resolution is expected at the committee’s December meeting.
The idea is a change from what previously had been discussed: tearing down the deck and replacing it with surface parking lots spread throughout campus.
“Clearly, our goal is to provide safe and secure parking on campus,” said Danny O’Connell, director of support services. “We have a large number of cars parking on city streets. We want to try to get them into the lots.”
The option recommended by O’Connell and members of an administrative committee, calls for repairing the deck, also called the M2 parking structure, at an initial cost of about $2.8 million followed by repairs of about $962,000 in subsequent years.
The university has $4.1 million earmarked for the project from about $20 million it borrowed last spring.
Additional work, estimated at about $1.35 million, would be required to replace guard barriers and the lighting system and to clean and paint concrete beams and columns.
In 15 years, the university could demolish the deck and then create surface lots or decide whether to build another deck, officials said.
“This was the recommendation of this group last year or the year before,” said Cynthia Anderson, YSU president.
“What happened?” asked Scott Schulick, trustees chairman.
“They were not able to tell you that recommendation,” Anderson said without elaborating.
When the idea to demolish the deck, which includes 1,278 spaces, next spring was discussed late last year, some of the areas to be used for parking included areas near the football stadium. Plans now, however, call for athletic fields on those sites.
If the resolution is formally approved, the deck would be shut down for repairs next spring and be reopened in fall 2011.
Schulick said there’s been talk for about 20 years about tearing down the deck, which was built in the 1970s.
“Now we’re looking at spending $13 million on it,” he said. “I have concerns about throwing good money after bad.”
The location of the deck is prime university real estate and could be used for an academic building, Schulick said.
“I’m a strong supporter of keeping the deck and not tearing it down,” said Harry Meshel, a trustee.
Meshel had spoken against the demolition plan at December’s meeting.
Ultimately, all trustees who attended the committee meeting approved the motion endorsing the new plan to renovate the Lincoln Avenue parking deck.
O’Connell proposes using shuttle buses to transport students while that work is being done. There have been discussions about using the Covelli Centre lot for students, he said.
He also proposes a change from a parking- permit plan to a transportation fee. The fee would be assessed to all students registered for more than five credit hours and set at a rate to provide “safe, secure parking and shuttle service to the customers,” the information presented to committee members said.
The parking fee per semester is $78, compared with $150 at the University of Akron and $160 at Cleveland State University.
O’Connell is proposing a $100 transportation fee to cover shuttle service and to build up a fund to pay for deck demolition or replacement in 12 to 15 years.
The committee took no action on the fee plan.
To meet current needs, O’Connell and others in the facilities department recommend building a lot at the Beeghly College of Education to create 118 new spaces; extending the M-26 lot, west of Fifth Avenue, creating 130 new spaces; and as soon as feasible, installing a new parking lot in the current tennis-court location, creating 262 new spaces.
Parking services is able to build the education lot and extend the M-26 lot with parking-service reserves.