The Daily Universe celebrates 50 years
This story originally appeared in the Daily Universe on Sept. 12, 1974
BYU student parking and its impact on the city became one of the hot items of discussion at a public hearing Wednesday from a proposed new Provo City zoning ordinance.
Apartment owners and developers said at the hearing before the Provo City Commission that the increased number of parking spaces required for apartment buildings under the new ordinance imposes an unfair burden on them.
Citizens who live near the BYU campus told commissioners they support any measure that will increase the amount of off-street parking around the university.
The purpose of the hearing was to review the proposed ordinance which Provo City Planning Director Jerry Howell said was drafted in an attempt to reflect changes in the city and to make the ordinance enforceable. However, most of the comments from the audience that nearly filled the commission chambers dealt with parking requirements.
Under the present zoning ordinance, each apartment building is required to have one and one-quarter off-street parking spaces for each apartment unit. The proposed ordinance would require new apartments to have one parking space for each tenant.
Howard F. Hatch, a Provo real estate broker and apartment owner, said the new parking requirements would penalize apartment builders for past practices. Streets around the university are clogged with parked cars, Hatch said, because so many former single-family homes have been turned into rental units without the city requiring additional off-street parking.
If the city requires apartment builders to supply as much parking as the ordinance proposes, Hatch said, rent must be increased and students will seek housing in peripheral areas around the city or in Orem.
“Orem has the mall,” he said. “They’ll get the student housing too and have the whole thing locked up.”
This remark brought applause from some members of the audience that nearly filled the commission changers. Hatch also warned that students living farther from campus would probably use more cars to get to and from school. “University officials will have cars coming out of their ears. We’ll end up with blacktop city to handle them all.
Copyright Brigham Young University 22 Nov 2005
