WEB PAGE TOOLS ~ Print this article ~ E-mail your opinion on this article OTHER NEWS STORIES ~ A milestone; Women's Center turns 25 ~ Professor feels targeted by anti-abortion messages ~ Distinguished alumna opens SCC celebration of National Nurses Week ~ Pressure washing trips power - Repair costs estimated at $25,000 ~ Student Senate Report for May 14, 2003 ~ News Briefs Parking garage coming to SCC? Michael Carter Editor-in-Chief SCC students may not follow many of the important issues that circulate around the college, but one thing everyone is keenly aware of is the disastrous parking situation fought by all campus commuters day in and day out. A student arriving at SCC past eight a.m. is doomed to face the decision of lurking around the lot as a parking vulture, or parking a good hike away from the school. Some solutions attempted by SCC such as off-campus shuttle parking, or reserved carpool sections have provided only mild relief. However, the situation has to the potential to get worse. Photo by Christopher Nelson   "The problem that we have is the 'pit' parking," explained SCC Interim Director Scott Saunders. "There are 660 some spaces in the pit, and that land doesn't belong to us, it belongs to the city of Shoreline. It was originally deeded to King County to be used as a park. And in that deed it said that you're not supposed to charge for parking. We are parking cars on park land and we're charging people to do it." Facing a severe cut in its parking capacity, SCC began seeking solutions and drew a conclusion of constructing a parking garage to alleviate and resolve the current situation. To achieve the goal of building a 1650 stall garage, a $57,000 allocation granted by the student senate will be used from student fees to begin a pre-design, which is necessary to receive state funding. The pre-design entails hiring an architect to study the surrounding environment, find out the proposed structure's design, the materials used for construction, and how many cars it can park. By combining the pre-design of the garage with the pre-design of the current Allied Health building project, SCC will save nearly $100,000, according to Beverly Brant, SCC Vice President of Administrative Services. "It would be cheaper to do the pre-design (for the garage) now. The timing is perfect. It will enable us to request money from the state funding cycle," Brant remarked. Despite her high hopes for obtaining the necessary funds, Brant warned that there are no guarantees. "The (pre-design) study must be paid by SCC in order to request money from the state, and it must by done by (mid-fall) to be considered for the 2005-07 biannual capital request for funding from the state." If approval is obtained, the proposed garage will by built on the campus' soccer field. There is also a high interest in returning the pit parking land back into a park. © 2003 Shoreline Community College™