By: Bob Browand

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Although there are approximately six weeks or so left in the semester, all of us in Parking and Transportation are already hard at work on our plans and preparations for the 2016-2017 school year.

As part of our new ten-year plan, students will notice changes to parking permit options, campus lots and alternative transportation and carpooling incentives.

Since some of these changes will be taking place as early as fall 2016, I’d like to use the next few weeks as an opportunity to provide the campus community with more information about what they can expect. This week, to get us started, let’s take a look a closer look at parking permits.

Limited permit sales

The act of overselling student parking permits has always been a hot topic on our campus. Although overselling is done at all universities, we’ve learned that our current policy of not denying a parking permit to anyone is unrealistic when coupled with the ongoing campus expansion that continues to eliminate University parking lots.

As the number of parking spaces on campus continues to decrease, so, too, must the number of permits we sell.

Therefore, we will be selling a limited quantity of parking permits for the 2016-2017 school year in an effort to better manage our oversell ratio and take advantage of the more than 300 empty spaces that were available on campus each day throughout the 2015-2016 school year.

I urge all students who plan to have a vehicle on campus and attend classes during the fall 2016 semester to purchase their parking permits as soon as they go on sale in late April. An email will be sent to all students once a specific on-sale date has been set.

Students who miss the opportunity to purchase a parking permit before they are sold out will need to find another way to get to and from campus, although they will be able to place themselves on a waiting list for the permit type they want.  Our team is currently working closely with METRO and other groups to develop more options for these individuals. We’ll discuss all of that in more detail in an upcoming blog post.

Semester permits

Another change to our plan involves the semester permits we sell. Individuals looking to buy a permit for just one semester will notice that that is no longer an option. Rather than offering individuals the option to purchase separate permits for each semester, we are now only selling annual permits.

Anyone needing a permit for only one semester can instead purchase an annual permit and return it at the end of the semester for a prorated refund. If the purchase is made after the start of the academic year, for example in January for the spring semester, the charge will be discounted accordingly.

Please note, however, that as a result of us now limiting permit sales, we are expecting to have only a limited number of permits during the spring.

Economy permits now allow you to park closer after hours

Students glancing at our permit prices may notice that Economy has jumped from $99 to $165. This is because Economy permits now encompass the perks of Economy Plus permits which were priced at $147 for the 2015-2016 academic year.

This means that if you have an Economy permit you will be allowed to move your vehicle to parking lots closer to campus beginning at 4 p.m. every day.

Overview

As you can see, Parking and Transportation’s parking permit program has been revamped quite a bit for the 2016-2017 school year. If you have any questions about these changes, feel free to leave a comment here or contact us at 832-842-1097 or parking@uh.edu.

Be sure to check back next week for our post about how the campus and parking lots will be changing starting in the fall.

published: Tuesday, Mar. 29, 2016