JC — ETSU Fall Growth ~800; School Going Vertical (Johnson City, Franklin: real estate, dorms)

[jabogitlu]

Finding space for everything will be a challenge for East Tennessee State University if enrollment continues to increase significantly, as is predicted this fall.

Final numbers will not be available until Monday, but the school expects to have an increase of about 800 students this fall. If that happens, the school’s total enrollment should be around 14,600 students.

The average increased enrollment for the past few years has been by about 600.

...

“We’ll probably have to go vertical on some of the parking allowances,” Stanton said. “There are some that are for a parking deck, some that are opposed to a parking deck. But I think that at some point we’ll have to have it, so that we can take up some of the other flat space to put new facilities. We have a problem with being landlocked.”

JohnsonCityPress.com - Local News - Johnson City, TN

In my own experience, I've only parked legally once this semester. The other days I have been parking illegally in striped areas and/or grass. The parking issue gets better after 12:45 classes but coming in at 9:20 or 10:30 is ROUGH. To me, the obvious solution is parking garages - tall ones, four, five, six stories. The school keeps building four-story dormitories, which is ridiculous; the university is very tight as it is and completely landlocked by roads and train tracks; new dorms need to be 8, 10, 12 stories tall (have any of these people looked at UT?).

They say there's no money at all to build facilities. If that's the case, then ETSU is going to have to face a bad reality - turn away a portion of students.

[jchometeam]

That might not be the worst thing to do.....

Regardless, parking garages will be a reality at ETSU fairly soon. Im not sure why some are opposed to that, but they apparently are.

[mbmouse]

I have to ask the same question, why would one be opposed to parking garages?

[SarahSal]

Originally Posted by mbmouse

I have to ask the same question, why would one be opposed to parking garages?

Probably because they're usually so gosh darn ugly and maybe ETSU is trying to maintain a more attractive architectural appearance and get away from huge offensive structures like the DOME! Without that, ETSU -at first look - might be considered a very pretty campus.

Perhaps they should consider running shuttles from *downtown's* parking garage to ETSU - what's that, 7 minutes away? In fact, maybe ETSU should just consider investing in some cheap, soon-to-be available real estate downtown. Now that would be a fast and inexpensive way to make the downtown/ETSU connection! It would surely benefit both parties..

[jabogitlu]

I don't think the Dome's ugly.

What I actually think is ugly is acre after acre of sprawled parking lots.

Running a shuttle from the downtown parking garage would be okay, but what's its max capacity? Probably not enough to fool with. Adding classroom or office space downtown is just too far away to be beneficial. I would absolutely not sign up for classes held downtown - there's no way to get there and back in the 10 minutes between classes, anyway.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge proponent of downtown redev, obviously, but... it's just too far away from ETSU to put anything that students will be using down there.

What the school needs to do is build a garage. (It was needed 10 years ago - back then it could've been built in the heart of campus; now it will be resigned to the perimeter.) The obvious place for it is at the lot on the intersection of the parkway and State of Franklin, but that would be pretty damn ugly from the road. I guess the next best place is the lot behind Knight's / Bojangles.

[jchometeam]

If im not mistaken, I believe the main proposed site has always been in place of some of the parking spaces on the side of campus close to Rogers Stout Hall and the administration building. You can probably build it there without being able to see if from State of Franklin.

I too do not see the dome as ugly, but I know many other do. I see it as a signature of Johnson City

[jabogitlu]

The main parking lots in front of the administration building are slated to be replaced by a Center of Fine & Performing Arts... I guess they could also put a parking garage in there as well...

[jchometeam]

Thinking about the layout, there are also 2 or 3 faculty/staff lots across from the old museum and to the side of the administration building. That could possibly be a place for a parking garage that would be closer to some of the buildings on campus. This also would not be visible from the main roads.

Oh well, its all speculation anyway

[jabogitlu]

Very true, and I agree that that'd be a prime location. I doubt that the university would want to "soil" that area though, because they spent a ton of (wasted) money making the belltower, etc. right there.

[blindsolitude]

Just to clarify some things. The "bell tower" (its actually called a carillon. . . it has at least 23 bells) was built from private donations (most likely alumni). This wasn't something the school decided to just build for the heck of it nor did they foot the bill. This is why there are bricks all around it with names on them. These were the donors (alumni and some community members). Could the alumni have spent their money on something better? Sure, but it was their money and they wanted something for the alumni on campus. http://www.etsu.edu/advance/carillon.asp (broken link)

As for the fine arts center. The stipulation for it being built was that a parking garage HAS to be included in the plans since it would sit on existing parking lots. However, since the center is on hold indefinitely, so is the parking garage.

Lastly, I have not had trouble parking on campus. I drive from Jonesborough to campus for work (I'm a GA) 4 times a week (well, 3 days a week now). In addition, I went to the clinic at 10:00 this past Thursday and there were a TON of open spots in the lots near Bojangles. Its just that the majority of students on campus feel that they should be able to park right by there classroom and they just don't want to walk. There is also a lot being constructed right now by the soccer fields that will accommodate 300-400 more vehicles. . . .but people will probably complain that it is too far to walk (even though the bucshot stops in those lots every 15 minutes or so).

Compared to other universities and colleges, ETSU's "parking problem" is not bad. Try finding a spot at UT, VA Tech, UVA, UNCA, or even UTC (their enrollment is 10,000). Not to mention they also pay more money for parking. ETSU charges $50 for the entire year. UTC charges $220 per year (for a reserved spot).

I will say that with the new dorm built, ETSU should have thought about the increase in residents and their cars. I know that they lot in front on Centennial is packed by 8:15. . . .but like I said, there are other lots to park in.