FAYETTEVILLE — University of Arkansas officials are acquiring the final few properties needed to build a parking garage on the the northeast end of campus.

The university's board last month agreed to pay $1.3 million for four rental houses in the block bounded by Maple and Douglas streets and Whitham and Gregg avenues.

The university spent $834,000 on seven other properties in the block since 2004, according to James Ezell, director of risk and property management.

Parking garage construction probably won't begin for at least another two years, Mike Johnson, associate vice chancellor for facilities, said. The project hasn't been designed yet, but university officials know they want to eventually add about 1,500 parking spaces.

"There's just not that much parking in that quadrant," Johnson said.

The university added 824 parking spaces in the past five years, while fall enrollment has grown by nearly 5,500 students during the same time period, according to Gary Smith, director of transit and parking.

Smith and Johnson said not every student and faculty member needs a parking spot. And not everyone's on campus at the same time. The university issued 25,000 permits this year for about 13,000 parking spaces.

Ideally, students would walk, bike or take the bus to get to class, Johnson said. But that's not the case for many students.

And, thus, more parking is needed.

Where possible, university officials prefer parking garages to surface lots.

"They're more expensive. That's the downside," Smith said. "But they also take up a lot less footprint."

The Harmon Avenue Garage, for example, has about 700 more spaces than Lot 56, but on a much smaller site. Lot 56 spans almost an entire city block north of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard between Razorback Road and Stadium Drive. The Harmon garage is nestled into a hill west of Duncan Avenue. It also cost more than $29 million.

It's unclear how much the Whitham Avenue garage will cost. Johnson said it could be five to seven stories tall.

Johnson said the garage will fit into the sloped topography on the block, making only some of it noticeable from properties to the south. It will replace gravel lots the university built as it acquired property.

The Sigma Chi house at Maple Street and Arkansas Avenue will stay, Johnson said. It's too early to tell if the university will buy a parking lot on the north side of the fraternity. The status of a stone house at Whitham and Maple that's been subdivided into apartments is also up in the air.

Despite the impact the parking garage might have on the Courts at Whitham, a 52-unit apartment complex on the west side of Whitham Avenue, Greg House, whose family owns the complex, said he welcomes the structure across the street.

House said he wasn't aware of the parking garage plans, but he knew the university had been buying property in the area.

"From a selfish position, I'd rather have parking than student housing," House said. "From a community perspective, I think more parking in that area wouldn't hurt, because then there will be less on-street parking."

House said he'd like to see something like the Garland Avenue Garage, which features an eye clinic, dentist's office, beauty salon, bookstore, Subway restaurant and yogurt shop.

"I'd love to see retail or commercial for the ground floor," he said. "That would be a benefit to everyone in that zone."

NW News on 04/14/2014