New parking eases stress

Three acres of parking freedom were paved over the desert to make life easier for students with cars at Paradise Valley Community College.

By Eric Paul Johnson, December 2011 Staff Writer

After two months of construction, begun in the brutal heat of July 8 and finished in the brutal heat of Sept. 20, 235 new parking spaces were created north of the Center for Performing Arts Building at the northeast corner of campus by 34th Street and Union Hills Drive, according to a fact sheet provided by PVCC Communications Assistant Verina Martin.

Before the arrival of this asphalt and lined automotive placement savior, the old lots and overflow dirt spaces were packed every day by 10:30 a.m.

With the current college boom, students bring their cars and waste precious time circling the
three lots (four if you count the Q building), desperately hoping for an open spot in time to rush to class.

With the new parking lot there are now 2,932 available places to put your car.

And this asphalt concrete mix, free of recycled rubber like most lots in Phoenix, is loaded with all kindsof special features. There are three spots in the new lot for employee parking, and not just one, but eight, handicap spaces. EIGHT! That's more than the minimum handicapped spaces required by the lot formula of the Americans With Disabilities Act. Not only that, but there is a 27-foot by 18-foot concrete slab where up to five motorcycles can park.

Managed by Oridian Construction Services, and built by Valente Contracting, Inc. of Phoenix, the $410,100 cost was paid for from the PVCC Fund 2 Auxiliary resources for special projects. The parking orgy doesn't end here, though. Yet another parking lot is due to spring up during the next MCCCD bond cycle.

All rumors that the lot was built on an old Indian burial ground or on top of the underground bunker where Hitler killed himself were flatly denied.

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