While you’re waiting for a parking spot, read why Citrus College really needs a parking structure
S9 Parking Lot
It’s the beginning of the spring semester. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, spring is in the air and students are looking forward to another successful and eventful semester, so what could go wrong?
The honking, the car accidents, the parking tickets, the car stalking and the time spent looking for parking is the most frustrating part of the semester according to students. While some students drive here locally, majority of students drive a great distant to come to this campus and having to deal with morning traffic and then fighting to find parking, students are stressed out. Citrus College needs a parking structure. With the growing number of students attending this campus, parking spaces are limited. With only nine lots dedicated to parking, the odds of a student finding parking before 9 a.m. seems impossible.
Around the campus there are residential areas for street parking but the parking has become so crowded in neighborhoods that the home owners fought to establish a law against parking on their streets. Who can blame them? Students can be inconsiderate toward other people’s streets with littering, disrespecting their property, and students parking all day in front of their house. Home owners are frustrated. Not only are the parking lots used for Citrus College students but it is also uses the stadium to hold sporting events as well. When the parking is completely full, the attendees seek to find alternatives for parking. Margo Coffman, a local resident that lives around the college said, “Parking has become terrible for the residents and home owners that live in the area. We are so glad that the cities established laws that limited parking on the streets because students were disrespectful and I hated waking up and coming home only to find trash on my lawn and walking a block to get to my house.”
Building a parking structure would clear up additional parking in neighborhood streets which would make residents happy.
Aerial view of S4 Parking Lot
From a survey of 50 students, 35 were in favor of building the parking structure. Their argument was that the parking structure would make getting to classes easier and students wouldn’t have to come to the campus an hour early in order to be on time. Citrus College student Mika Victoria said, “Parking anywhere before 2 p.m. is nearly impossible, and in those moments, I wish there was a parking structure. Another solution could be to simply spread out the class times more evenly throughout the day so that the morning/afternoons aren’t so congested.” The students against the parking structure said that the structure would make trying to get a parking spot more stressful. The parking structure would lead to more car accidents, more traffic, and more money out of student’s pockets.
Mt. San Antonio College recently started constructing a parking structure. With construction beginning in 2015, the parking structure can hold up to 1,900 parking spaces, and according to Mt. SAC’s predictions, would provide enough parking for students until at least the year 2025.
Locally, there are some alternatives around Citrus College that have provided some relief to the parking situation. The Gold Line extension has been open to the public since March of 2016. The Gold line extension comes from East Los Angeles and ends at Citrus College. The train stops through cities such as Monrovia, Duarte, Azusa, and Arcadia. Even though the Gold Line is an incredible and less stressful alternative, students still struggle with parking in Metro’s parking structures. Since the structures are available to the general public, majority of the parking is full by 7 a.m. including the APU/Citrus Gold Line stop.
Overcrowded parking lot
Recently, Citrus has encouraged students to use the Foothill Transit buses. Beginning of Fall 2016, Citrus College, in working with Foothill Transit, has provided students with bus passes. The bus is also a perfect alternative, but if a student lives a great distance away, the bus would be a hassle. Since buses are available to the public it can get extremely crowded and with an overcrowded bus leads to frequent stops which means more time getting to school.
Citrus needs a parking structure. With alternatives like the Gold Line and Foothill Transit, the parking at Citrus is still a problem. It’s time for a change and with the ever growing student population, the parking structure would benefit not only the students but the school as well.
