Tennessee Tech is reminding students not to park illegally on public streets around campus, after growing issues around Cookeville’s downtown and adjacent neighborhoods.
The Cookeville Police Department has recently enhanced parking enforcement efforts due to the growing issues. Tennessee Tech Public Relations Director Jonathan Frank said the university has an open line of communication with the city about the issue.
“The communication there remains strong,” Frank said. “We have encouraged the city to take the enforcement measures they feel are appropriate. We have not raised objections at all because we want to ensure that people are parked legally and safely, and we want to be respectful of our wonderful neighbors.”
Frank said the parking really became more of an issue for the city once the university moved some of the interior parking to the edge of campus to make the campus more pedestrian-friendly. Frank said though it may not be convenient parking, it’s a change that students will have to get used to.
“The university is certainly looking at all avenues to make sure that we are making optimal use of the parking that we do have,” Frank said. “And again, on any given day, there is ample parking in those lots across Willow Avenue, and so some of this is just a little bit of a tweak to your routine, to maybe park a little bit further away from and take that free and convenient shuttle service into the interior of campus.”
Many may wonder, after adding a shuttle service and building a bicycle shelter, what can the university do to add more convenient parking with limited space on campus? Frank said a parking garage is in the university’s master plan.
“State funds cannot be used for those facilities, and so the university has to absorb the full cost of construction,” Frank said. “But that is something the university is moving ahead with, and just in these last couple of months, the discussion and planning around that has really accelerated. At this time, the university is looking at proposing one larger parking garage in the center of campus that could potentially accommodate more than 800 vehicles. So this would be a large structure. It’s something that our capital projects office and the business office are looking at closely, and so more to come on that soon.”
Frank said some students park on public streets to avoid paying for a parking permit. Frank said that creates challenges regardless of how much parking is available. Frank said he encourages students to purchase a parking permit to avoid the possibility of parking illegally on public streets.