Title: Keep Off The Grass: Parking at TWU’s Langley Campus and Plans for the Future
Section: News, Issue 3
Author: Samantha Twist
Keywords: Parking, solutions, New Business Building,
The grass behind Trinity Western University’s (TWU) Robert N. Thompson building is easily mistaken for extra parking spaces. Parking is a major complaint for TWU students right now. When students return to their cars after class, it is often to the wallet-wrecking sight of a white parking ticket tucked under a windshield wiper.
Especially after the addition of two new residential buildings, Skidmore and Jacobson Hall, parking has become seemingly scarce on campus. Though temporary solutions are in place, the parking situation remains problematic, and will continue to intensify with coming developments—TWU’s long-term solutions have little to do with an actual increase in parking infrastructure.
According to Parking and Security Manager, Derek Adams, “TWU does not have a parking problem.” Instead, he argues, we have a “walking problem.” He continues, “I think the main problem is that there is not a lot of education or advertising about the new lots.” On the highest-ticketed day this year there were 20 cars on the grass and 80 empty spots in the new lots. “There’s still a 60-spot lot behind the soccer field,” Adams says. “I don’t think anyone’s ever parked there.”
Some students acknowledge the reality that there is more parking elsewhere on campus, and take issue not with a lack of parking but with the financial cost of an inconvenient service. One resident of Jacobson Hall, Kelsey Morris, says, “I don’t care that I have to park farther away from my residence, but I do care that I’m paying $420 dollars for a ‘Resident Parking Pass’ when I can’t park anywhere near my building.”
According to Township of Langley (TOL) bylaws, TWU must have one parking spot for every full-time employee and one parking spot for every five students. There are roughly 4500 students, 286 full-time staff, and 1700 parking spots. These numbers put TWU well above the TOL bylaw requirements, which would deem roughly 1186 spots acceptable. The university clarified this when building Jacobson Hall, because they were required to prove to the township that they would still have sufficient parking.
Only 960 parking passes have been sold for the year. TWU is nowhere near selling more passes than spots.
The biggest barrier to solving the parking problem is a lack of space. Adams notes that “the areas that we could build parking are not necessarily the best areas . . . We don’t want to take green space away.” TWU is looking at turning the abandoned house by the Neufeld Science Centre into 18 new spots, but must be careful because there are old trees in that area that must be protected.
Adams mentions that there have been discussions about building a parkade. Unfortunately, the cost to build a parkade is between $8 and 10 million. Adams says that “there [are] issues with parking but right now it hasn’t reached the point where we need to build a parkade.” The priority is “building better dorms and more classrooms,” says Adams.
In 2020, TWU will lose 125 parking spots when the Robert G. Kuhn Building, intended to house the School of Business and TWU GLOBAL, is built. Common knowledge among business students, if not the rest of campus, is that the new building is part of the reason parking was expanded this summer.
Kevin Sawatsky, Dean of Business at TWU, says that the School of Business has grown by hundreds of students and 10 full-time faculty members in recent years, and has “clearly outgrown the existing space.” Sawatsky says, “The School of Business is very much looking forward to a new professional, high-quality building that will allow the School to continue to grow and flourish.”
The architecture firm hired to manage the building project, Thinkspace, has a website with images of the building plans, as well as a partial timeline. The project began in February 2019, according to its website, and will be completed by July 2021—although TWU is hoping to have it done by September 2020.
Because of the parking expansion over the summer, even with the addition of a business building, the campus will still have more parking spots than in previous years, and will remain well within the bylaw requirement.
Increasing parking is not part of the permanent solution, according to Adams. In his opinion, alternate ways to get on and off campus present far better long-term solutions. TWU is discussing options with BC Transit to create smarter routes to and from campus, including increasing the schedule of buses coming to the university. There is also a possible plan for a direct bus route from TWU to Carvolth Exchange in Walnut Grove, which would come on campus and stop near Mattson Centre.
TWU is also looking at encouraging more cycling. Though there are no plans to increase the amount of bicycle racks on campus, Adams says he will be looking to educate students on where the racks are, as they are currently “not very well marked.” Many students do not know that there is an underground bike locker below Robson, which students can register for at Student Life.
Discussion is taking place between TWU and the TOL about starting a bike-share program. This would put 20 shared bikes on campus owned by the township: so if a student parked their car a 20-minute walk from their class, they could get on a bike and be at class in three minutes.
Adams is optimistic about potential solutions that encourage fewer cars on campus. “The long term solutions don’t necessarily have to do with parking,” He says, “[Instead] they are to do with trying to provide better services so that students will be more encouraged to take [alternate] transport.”
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