The University will set aside previous plans to build a new parking garage on College Hill, the officials said.
The IMP, which must be submitted to city officials every five years, details the University's physical expansion and development plans for the next five years. At the Dec. 13 meeting, held in the Vartan Gregorian Lounge, University officials briefed about 50 people, mostly East Side residents, on the latest draft of the IMP, which will be submitted to the city in early 2006.
Most of the discussion focused on the perennially contentious issues of traffic congestion and parking shortages on College Hill.
"In recent months, a lot of the focus was around traffic and parking. We hoped decisions would take into account the input of various members of our community, both on-campus and off-campus, about what makes sense for Brown and for the community," said Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior adviser to the president.
The College Hill parking shortage is not a new problem, but it has been exacerbated by shrinking supply and growing demand. Some 200 to 300 new parking spots are needed to support elements of the Plan for Academic Enrichment, such as increasing the size of the faculty and expanding the Graduate School and multidisciplinary centers. Meanwhile, some capital projects, such as the Nelson Fitness Center, will result in the loss of about 300 existing parking spots, said Michael McCormick, director of planning for Facilities Management.
Last spring, University administrators said they were considering two proposals to build multistory parking structures. One plan called for a 700-car garage located near the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center; the other option was to build a smaller underground garage beneath the planned Nelson Fitness Center.
Both proposals drew considerable ire from local residents, who argued that the structures would increase traffic congestion and add to the problem of overbuilding in the neighborhood.
Spies said at the presentation that University-commissioned traffic studies found the parking structures to be feasible, but administrators ultimately decided to abandon the plan to construct a parking garage.
"As we go forward with our master plan submission to the city, at least at this moment, our plan is not to incorporate and not to rely on structured parking on College Hill as part of our solution to the parking problem," Spies said.
Instead, the University will lease between 200 and 300 parking spaces in an off-campus lot for undergraduate students, replacing most of the 450 undergraduate parking spots currently located on College Hill. The on-campus spaces vacated by students will then be redistributed to faculty and staff.
Administrators declined to speculate at the meeting about possible locations for the off-campus lot, but Spies said earlier this year that off-campus parking could be located near the University's recent property acquisitions downtown or in the Jewelry District.
Abigail Rider, director of real estate and administrative services, said the lot might be located near the existing Brown shuttle route, allowing it to be included as a stop on the existing shuttle service.
Rider said administrators will focus on finding the safest and most practical way to transport students between campus and the off-site lot. "If you're a student, you need to get to your car - how do you get there and how much of an effort is it? We need to make it useful and safe enough that students will use it," Rider said.
The University will release a request-for-proposals concerning the off-campus lot in January.
Administrators also emphasized programs already in place to reduce the need for undergraduates to bring cars to campus. Such initiatives include bus fare subsidies, the Brown shuttle service and the newly introduced Zipcar service, which provides car rentals by the hour to students over the age of 21.
Though details of the future of undergraduate student parking on and off campus are not entirely clear, the University's latest parking plan does not call for an increase in undergraduate parking spots - the plan just relocates most undergraduate parking from College Hill to an off-campus site. Any future growth in on-campus parking will be reserved for faculty, staff and graduate students, according to the plan.
To address traffic congestion, administrators said they want to work with the city to improve pedestrian crossings and retime traffic signals on Waterman Street and Angell Street.
A University-commissioned transportation study found that traffic signals on Waterman Street and Angell Street are poorly timed, making cars stop more often than necessary. Properly timed traffic signals at pedestrian crossings on the two streets could improve safety and traffic flow without having to make cars stop an additional time, the study found.
Based on the results of the study, administrators hope to install traffic signals at crossings along the proposed Walk, which will link Lincoln Field with the Pembroke campus.
"The idea here is to create a strong signal so that the pedestrians know when they can cross and the cars don't have to stop an extra time. What we're finding is that at Brown Street, for example, the students cross in an unsignalized manner. If you let one of them go, you have to let the next couple hundred go. It creates a very awkward situation," McCormick said.
