On Thursday, April 26, the UNC Charlotte Board of Trustees approved permit rates for 2012-2013 as follows:

Yes, prices went up

Rates increased again, although the percentage is less than in the past two years. Business Services has endeavored to keep prices as low as the financial model will allow, while adding new decks and parking control technology that will benefit campus now and in the future.

The principal factor that determines permit pricing is the cost of new deck construction and replacing flat lots with decks.

It’s expensive to design, construct and maintain new parking decks needed to accommodate enrollment and demand. When surface lots must make way for new buildings and residence halls, those spaces must be replaced with decks.

What’s new for 2012-2013

All permits will be hangtags this year

Each hangtag will have an embedded RFID (Radio Frequency ID) that will open gated lots as soon as that technology can be added.

• Faculty and Staff who have purchased a gate card will no longer have a separate card to open the gate. The RFID on their hangtag will be activated; simply pulling up to the gate will open it.
• This technology will also allow Commuter students to access the new CRI deck (scheduled to open in mid-September). Resident Students will be allowed to park in the CRI deck after 6:00 PM.

Because not everyone likes hanging a tag from the rear view mirror, PaTs will offer an approved window pouch that applies to the driver’s side of the windshield so the permit can be read from a windshield display. Window pouches will come in packs of two and cost $1 per pack.

Multi-vehicle registration

To register more than one vehicle to a hangtag, the cost is $15, unchanged from last year. You may register as many vehicles as you like to any one tag.

Carpools

Carpools need to be registered with Parking and Transportation Services. A multi-vehicle hangtag listing all the carpool vehicles and their owners will be set up.

New benefit for carpoolers: Each vehicle in the carpool will be allowed up to 10 free daily temporary permits per academic year. That way, on days when you need to drive your own car and not be a part of the carpool, you may legally park. Daily temporary passes can be picked up at the PaTS office in advance of the day needed, or you may park in front of the PaTS office for long enough to procure that day’s permit.

Discount remote parking options to continue

Lower-priced permit options for Faculty/Staff and Commuters include:

Lot 6A (at the corner of Cameron and John Kirk, served by the Rt. 50 Red Line shuttle)

Lot 27 (on Toby Creek, near Harris Alumni Center), a walk-in lot

Remote parking at Starlight Cinema (North Tryon Street) served by Rt. 49 Green Line from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM weekdays.

FAQs about permit prices

Why does it cost so much to park my car for a few hours a day?

Campus parking has to be self-supporting. This is because:

• State funding is not used to pay for parking facilities;
• Tuition dollars do not supplement parking;
• Collected citation fines cannot supplement construction or maintenance of parking facilities.

What do Permit fees pay for?

Almost all of it goes toward design and construction new parking decks, maintenance and debt service (paying back construction bonds) of existing decks/lots, with a small percentage going toward traffic control staffing and support of the CATS Campus Shuttle.

Where does the money for parking citation fines go?

There are State statutes governing this (GS 115C-457.1-3 - page 305) determining that civil fines (as well as penalties and forfeitures) less the cost of collection have to be remitted to the State; then the State allocates the money to local public schools.

The cost of collection is capped at 20%, regardless of what it may actually cost the agency or municipality to collect the fines. Enforcement and collection costs the University more than the amount we’re permitted to keep. Business Services remits the 80% of all fines collected to the Office of State Budget and Management (OSBM) monthly.

PaTS and the University do not gain financial benefit from citation fines. In fact,

• it costs us money to enforce permits and deter illegal parking;
• expect to see more lots and decks being controlled by gate systems; they require less citation enforcement;
• more gates and less citation enforcement benefits campus as whole because automated parking control lowers cost.

These measures, along with other polices, such as forcing contractor vehicles to park off campus and offering discount remote parking options, help ease some of the demand. As demand levels off, so should permit price increases.

For questions about permits and parking for 2012-2013, contact Parking and Transportation Services. Write unccpark@uncc.edu, call 704‑687‑0161, or start up a conversation on Twitter, @unccparking.

More information to follow about parking disruptions expected over the summer and the upcoming academic year. There’s a lot of new building construction in the immediate future that will impact parking, especially on the South side of campus (it’s going to get grim around the highrises). Updates will continue next week and over the summer. They’ll all be posted to Auxiliary Service's news page and linked on the Auxiliary Services at UNC Charlotte Facebook page.