By Vic Cox

With two new faculty representatives in attendance, the Parking Ratepayers Board (RRB) decided by a vote of 4 to 3 to recommend a $1 a person a month boost in annual parking permits for faculty, staff, and students. The increase to $36 a month would take effect on Oct. 1 (NOTE: This rate increase date corrects the 93106 print version of June 15.) if Chancellor Henry T. Yang approves the recommendation, which includes an Oct. 1 increase of $1 in the daily rate, from $7 to $8.

In its action on June 2, the RRB also scheduled a $1 rise in night and weekend rates, going from $2 to $3, on Jan. 1, 2006. However, under the compromise largely crafted by Greg Foltz of the Residence Hall Association, the staggered start dates left time to reconsider the latter rates if new information changed the reasons for the actions.

Taking an active part in the discussions were new faculty RRB members Marguerite Bouraad-Nash, a political science lecturer with a long history of parking committee participation, and Kostas Goulias, professor of geography.

Driving much of the debate so far has been UCSB’s previous commitment to building and maintaining three parking structures—the existing 900-space Mesa Parking Structure, the nearly complete 600-space Campus Parking Structure 2 (CPS 2) adjacent to the new California NanoSystems Institute, and the 1,100-space CPS 3, currently a large hole west of the Events Center. These structures are needed to replace spaces mostly lost to the construction of new academic buildings, which are designed with little or no replacement parking.

Paying the costs and debt service on these parking structures, especially in the next three years, has been a central concern of the RRB, along with fairly apportioning these costs among users. Transportation and Parking Services Director Tom Roberts disclosed last month that his unit’s costs for events services was not fully recovered. He estimated a deficit that runs $150,000 to $160,000 a year.

But last month event organizers also told the board that their programs were already in jeopardy due to the institution in 2003 of night and weekend parking fees of $2. None favored increased fees.