“It’s a shame that UWM hasn’t provided parking for students. The campus grows and grows and there is never any parking included.”
– Toni McBride, co-founder of the Eastside Transportation Management Association

When East Side resident Toni McBride comes home at the end of the day, she has difficulty finding an open parking spot near her home on the 3400 block of N. Summit Ave.

With so much traffic commotion on her street, she also worries about the safety of her young children while they are playing outside.

“There are so many turnovers that it’s non-stop chaos,” she said. “It’s really become a safety issue.”

She has watched the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee grow larger over the years and parking become increasingly congested.

“It’s a shame that UWM hasn’t provided parking for students,” she said. “The campus grows and grows and there is never any parking included.”

Frustrated by the complex parking problem of the UWM neighborhood, McBride and other East Side neighbors began an advisory committee, the Eastside Transportation Management Association (ETMA), eight years ago to improve the parking and transportation problems around UWM.

Together with Third District Ald. Michael D’Amato, the ETMA has developed uniform parking regulations — some that may have a major impact on the nearly 12,000 students who commute to the campus.

Last Thursday, the state Senate approved the residential preferred parking bill that D’Amato and the committee developed.

According to the bill, if the UWM campus creates 721 parking spaces on campus, the city of Milwaukee may initiate a program to reserve 721 parking spaces for persons whose residences are adjacent to the UWM campus, along with guests of the persons and commercial enterprises providing services to such persons.

The area surrounding UWM already has a residential parking plan in place that allows residents to park in places beyond posted time restrictions. However, the current plan does not allow residents to reserve places.

Students react

Prior to Tuesday’s vote at the capitol, UWM Student Organization Officer Russel Scott sent a petition to the state Assembly containing 1,290 student signatures opposing the bill with a letter claiming that the implementation of the proposed legislation would “infringe on the rights of students and the general public to park on the public streets.”

A survey was conducted as well. Of 2,493 students, 82 percent responded “no” to the question, “Do you support the implementation of residential preferred parking?”

Also attached were various comments from students regarding the bill. Comments ranged from “Parking at UWM sucks” to “I think it’s a great idea.”

The plan was developed about seven years ago and finally agreed upon last year by the ETMA and UWM administrators, according to Tom Luljak, vice chancellor of University Relations.

He said that with the new Pavilion parking structure, additional spaces at the Zelazo Center for the Performing Arts and another satellite lot made available near the lakefront, students were given 721 new spaces, providing residents around the campus those on the streets and keeping the status quo.

“I know it’s not perfect for either side, but most compromises are not,” Luljak said. “Our goal is to find some common ground with neighbors and to address some legitimate concerns with parking pressure on campus. We need to balance the parking needs of students and faculty with the neighborhood.”

McBride claims that she and the ETMA were responsible for the added Pavilion parking structure, the first new parking structure built in 15 years.

“Neighbors fought at many meetings to get them to add more parking to the Klotsche Center,” she said.

McBride, who refers to the bill as the Residential Parking Plan, said that it will benefit students as well, seeing how a number of area residents are students.

She said that right now there are over 25 different parking regulations, and the plan would make parking much more unified for everybody.

Another concern about the plan is its economic impact on students.

Last year, 206,120 parking citations were issued in the fifth police district alone, despite the fact that UWM’s district is a less populated district, according to Dorinda Floyd of the Department of Public Works.

“I spend more money on parking than I do gas,” said senior Stephanie Berendt, who commutes 40 minutes from Waterford.

However, Sam Rowen, legislative assistant for the third aldermanic district, does not expect ticket revenue to go up.

“If anything, I think it’ll drop, because we’ll encourage commuter students to use the satellite lots,” he said.

Rowen hopes to create another satellite lot at Miller Park sometime in the near future.

Rowen said that he and D’Amato have helped improve student parking over the years by eliminating winter regulations and assisting in getting the Kenilworth development improved, along with the Klotsche renovation. His office also helped in adding the Bradford satellite lot on the lakefront.

According to Claude Schuttey, director of Parking and Transit, parking pressures may ease if the university buys Columbia Hospital. There, the parking structure would make an additional 750 parking spots available.

If the structure becomes a part of the university, will that mean 750 more residential preferred parking spaces would be created?

According to Rowen, yes — a one-for-one agreement was made.

Luljak, on the other hand, said that this would not be the case, as the number was capped at 721.

“If approved, (RPP spaces) could not go over that number,” he said.

Although he supports RPP, Rowen said that adding and subtracting parking will not solve the East Side parking problems long-term.

“The only solution is better transportation, like the Milwaukee Connector,” he said.

The Milwaukee Connector is a non-guided hybrid diesel bus that resembles standard diesel buses. The vehicles are quieter and more fuel efficient than those buses currently operating in Milwaukee.

Right now, it is uncertain where the 721 residential parking spaces will be reserved. Also, there is not a timeline as to when the bill will go into effect. Currently, the bill is waiting for Gov. Jim Doyle’s approval or veto.

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