The College plans to expand campus parking by 607 spots over the next few years. The town has approved Bowdoin's plans to expand the parking lot behind 38 College Street by 26 spots and create a new lot off Harpswell Road that will provide over 486 parking spaces. Additionally, a new lot with over 95 parking spaces will be constructed on the site of Dayton Arena.
At a meeting on Thursday, Sr. Vice President for Finance and Administration S. Catherine Longley and Director of Security Bruce Boucher presented the plans for these three parking areas to Bowdoin student, staff, and faculty. Bowdoin currently provides 1,434 parking spaces in 47 locations for students, visitors, and staff. Longley acknowledged that the current number of available parking spaces and the possibility of parking area expansion are "issues of interest to everyone" and invited those in attendance to give feedback about the new plans.
The school intends to begin expanding the 38 College Street lot either this summer or next summer and will build the Harpswell lot soon after. Brunswick has approved the College's plans and the school needs only obtain a permit in order to begin construction. The Dayton lot cannot be built until the College raises $15 million to build a new hockey arena next to Farley Field House. Once the money is raised, Dayton arena will be torn down and the new parking lot will be built on the arena's footprint.
"The hope is that [the Dayton lot] will be constructed by 2007," said Boucher.
While these new parking spaces are added, others will be lost. Construction vehicles and equipment will occupy some of the current parking spaces centrally located on campus as the new dorms on South Street are constructed and while renovations are made to the first-year dorms on the quad.
"We will lose some parking capacity as we build new buildings," Boucher acknowledged.
Longley and Boucher stated that Bowdoin has not yet designated which of the new lots will be "blue lots," which only faculty, staff, and visitors can use between the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., and which lots will be available for student parking. Of the current parking spaces available on campus, 604 are designated for faculty and staff, 41 are designated visitor parking spaces, and 670 are student spaces. Students apply for and receive parking passes in a parking lottery in May.
The lot at Dayton may not be a permanent structure, according to Boucher. In 20 years, the College hopes to build a new academic building where the arena once stood. Longley noted that the new building may include a level of underground parking.