By Matthew Sotlar / The Jambar
Students who have trouble finding a place to park near DeBartolo Hall or the Andrews Student Recreation and Wellness Center will have their problems solved by the end of the semester with the completion of the M66 lot.
M66 was previously adjacent to M71 and M63 on Arlington Avenue. In July, several historical homes on Arlington Avenue were razed to make way for the new lot. The YSU Foundation purchased these homes for $220,000.
Parking services director Danny O’Connell said M66 is part of a phased plan to replace the former M60 parking deck off Lincoln Avenue.
“Part of the plan, when we took down the parking garage, was to come up with replacement parking,” O’Connell said. “So we did a series of lots behind Fedor [Hall], between the stadium and the [Watson and Tressel Training Site]. We did that before we took down the deck.”
Following these new lots, M60 was put in place of the M60 parking deck, along with two lots behind Enterprise Rent-A-Car off West Rayen Avenue.
M66 will have 200 spaces. O’Connell said the lot will solve the problem of overflow parking.
“I anticipate this to be a very popular parking lot,” O’Connell said. “Between the [M60] lot and then the M70 lot, that kind of fills up from the corner of Arlington and Fifth Avenue right away in the morning, and it’ll really help us there.”
O’Connell added that the lot will be especially helpful during campus or community events that draw large crowds.
“Obviously, on a normal class day, we don’t anticipate filling the lot up at this time,” O’Connell said. “When we have major events, graduation, football, whatever, this will be a great enhancement to the campus core.”
Installing M66 will be the third part of the phase to replace the M60 parking deck. O’Connell said installing new lots was a better option than replacing the deck.
“A parking garage is very expensive,” O’Connell said. “For a parking garage today, it’s approximately $35,000 for one parking spot. You put it into perspective, it would cost us more to build a parking garage, depending on the spaces, than it did to build Williamson [Hall].”
O’Connell said YSU has some of the most accessible parking out of all Ohio universities.
“Compared to most of the state universities and colleges, especially the urban ones, we have the closest, most convenient parking,” O’Connell said. “I’m talking [University of] Akron, Cleveland State [University], even Ohio State [University]. When you look at Kent [State University], they have some land, but they’re parking significantly away from their campus.”
The lot is set to be completed sometime after Thanksgiving Break. O’Connell said he is excited to see how the lot is used by students and faculty.
“I’m pretty excited about it opening,” O’Connell said. “We won’t really see the impact until next fall, although it’ll be a big impact come spring. But we have that big rush of people in the fall that are coming early, the new freshmen trying to find their way around and everything. So, I’m excited to see that.”
