Street parking may be banned
By Sarah Krebs
Staff Reporter

Residential street parking could be restricted in all areas surrounding campus if a city proposal by Frisco Heights residents passes, police officials say.

Frisco Heights Neighborhood Association members said they want the city to put up signs to not allow student parking from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. during the week in the area west of Park Hill Drive and north of Berry Street.

However, Fort Worth Police Department Officer Jamie Johnson said they may decide to put up the signs all around campus and not just in the Frisco Heights neighborhood in order to enforce uniform wording on all signs.

Johnson said keeping the signs uniform throughout the area makes it easier to enforce and creates, as a result, a safer and less crowded neighborhood.

Randy Burkett, City Traffic Engineering Department representative, said the city will decide in about two weeks.

The city is reviewing the proposal to see if there is a safety issue and then will decide on putting up the no parking signs all around the TCU campus, Burkett said.

Frisco Heights residents met Jan. 21 with Burkett and Johnson to discuss the proposal.

Don Mills, vice chancellor of Student Affairs, said he met with city officials two or three times over the last few months to discuss ways to solve the issue. There are a few proposals for a parking garage, but more ground level parking and shuttle services are being considered first, Mills said.

“Right now students are taking advantage of parking on the street at the expense of the people who live there,” Mills said. “There is no shortage of parking spots, but there is a significant shortage on parking close to the classrooms.”

Mills said he wanted students to park responsibly and legally on campus even if that meant they would have to walk a lot farther.

Most students would rather pay a cheaper ticket to Fort Worth than a $100 ticket to TCU, said Ashley Monroe, a sophomore accounting major.
Maria Salvado, a junior business major, said she commutes and parks on the street, sometimes illegally, because she cannot find a place to park.
“There aren’t any parking spaces anywhere,” Salvado said. “TCU should do something about that because there aren’t any spaces.”

Marsha Cowdin, a member of the Frisco Heights Neighborhood Association traffic committee, said they also would like to have no parking anytime at least 30 feet from the intersections because of cars hampering visibility.
Johnson said he has the authority to ticket and even tow cars parked too close to the corner of the intersection, but that sometimes the student will move the car before the tow truck arrives eliminating the problem and the penalty involved.

Cowdin said she talked to the Fort Worth Fire Department and had them drive the streets and said they were appalled the area had gotten this crowded.

“They have parking facilities but they don’t want to use them,” Cowdin said. “If you do park at TCU, you pay a hefty fine and that pushed them out into the neighborhoods. Now we are having to deal with it, and I want to push them back into their own parking lots and let them use the shuttle bus.”

Sarah Krebs
s.d.krebs@tcu.edu

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