In a recent VCU’s Telegram for Students, this bullet point appeared:
2. Changes to Parking on West Cary Street
VCU is considering requesting the City of Richmond change the parking restriction on the south side of West Cary Street, the 900 and 1000 blocks, from no restriction to 2-hour parking, similar to the majority of campus streets. The change is being considered because of the opening of the Cary Street Recreation Center and the demand for parking near this new facility (I added boldness here- ed.). Please direct comments to Paul Walker, manager of Parking & Transportation, at prwalker@vcu.edu no later than March 12.
While this is in congruence with making the Cary Street corridor more urban-business-friendly (something that the Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association is in favor of), it stands in contrast to what the VCU administration said during its campaign against the neighborhood:
E. Objection to parking. This project will not increase the enrollment at VCU, and therefore does not increase campus parking requirements. .
Of course, most Oregon Hill residents are not surprised in the least by this. It fits in with the rest of the Student Recreational Center controversy. (Again, OHNA was never against VCU students getting a new facility. The location and implementation were the issues). Hopefully, someday soon, VCU will take more positive steps to allow healing.
some comments from students on the Gyms Facebook page (names have been witheld but you can go see these and other comments on the page):
• They should have designed the gym with a built in parking deck.
• historical my ass. obviously you haven’t paid attention to your surroundings. OH is beat down, run down garbaaaage.the sidewalks are misplaced by over grown trees and most of the houses are unkept. I would want to tear down OH even if there wasn’t a new gym deck in the works.
anyway PLEASE KEEP IT NO RESTRICTIONS. There are already very few places for students to park around campus for more than an hour. What about the students who park there for classes? Where will they park?
about an hour ago · Report
• only non restricted parking left in the city basically, bad idea, tear down some of those nasty houses in oregon hill and make a parking lot! there are plenty of other apts people could move to in the fan, but not plenty of spaces to build a parking lot for cary street gym goers!
VCU claimed that they did not need to provide parking for the new 100,000 sq ft recreational center built within the Oregon Hill Historic District because there was no plan to increase enrollment at VCU. Wouldn’t that be like a new Target store claiming that they didn’t have to provide any parking for their customers because there was no increase in the population of Richmond?
VCU said at the January OHNA meeting that 4000 students a day are using the facility. That is over 1 student entering every 15 seconds if the hours are 8AM to midnight. Dont think a new Target store gets that kind of traffic.
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It seems to me that the university should encourage students to use the facility and get there via means other than a car. I believe (but may be wrong) that students can ride GRTC for free? Also, if a student is a commuter to campus, then they have parking a parking pass for a lot OR already find street parking as it is. VCU is a tiny campus and walking a coulpe blocks is no big deal. I went to college on a giant campus and would walk all over and take the bus on occaision in the winter. There is no need for an additional parking structure. Keep in mind that ACROSS THE STREET from the gym there is a parking deck that can be used as is.
4000 students using the gym each day is great. I love that. I’d be curious how many live on vs. off campus or within a mile of the facility. I know VCU can compile that data as students have electronic access via fingerprint scans and/or cards.