Changes to Eastern’s parking will have to wait until next school year.

The Council on University Planning and Budgets submitted its parking recommendations to President Bill Perry in early August.

Perry said public forums would be held concerning the recommendations this semester, with changes coming to parking on campus in fall 2009.

“I believe that in any kind of decision-making process where it is going to impact everybody, and parking is surely one of them, we need to have open discussions,” Perry said.

In the short term, Perry said the university will do something to make sure people attending events in the Doudna Fine Arts Center have a place to park this year.

CUPB submitted eight recommendations to Perry after going through 2,414 surveys and 73 pages of additional comments from the survey.

Perry asked CUPB to assess parking on campus in the spring.

Among CUPB recommendations, the group suggested an entire parking fee increase and the construction of a parking garage.

Another recommendation was parking should be included in the Campus Master Plan.

Pat Fewell, chair of CUPB, said the idea of a parking garage existed for quite some time.

The group detailed that people are willing to pay between $100 and $150 more in fees to pay for a parking garage. That equated to be around a 200-year payback for the university without supplemental funding.

CUPB suggested the university would need to acquire additional funding if a garage is built.

Fewell said she and the group do not know where the university stands with taking the next step of building a garage.

“We made our recommendations, and it is not our job to tell the powers that be how to do it,” Fewell said.

She added building a regular parking lot would be much cheaper, but does not know if the university has enough space to build a lot that would compare in size to a garage.

CUPB suggested an entire parking fee increase to cover rising costs in asphalt, which is a petroleum-based product, Fewell said.

“We were pretty broad on those because I and the council didn’t want to hang anybody up,” she said.

Perry said forums on the recommendations would be held in September and in October.

After the forums, final proposals on the recommendations will be made, he added.

For the time being, the university plans to use the parking lot adjacent to Doudna to accommodate visitors for events in the fine arts center, said Dan Nadler, vice president for student affairs.

“This arrangement will allow us opportunities to clear the lot during the day,” he said. “Again, most of the activities will take place in the evenings.”

The university does not plan to charge people for parking at events unless a special service like valet parking, which the university is exploring, is provided, Nadler said.

The empty lot at the intersection of Ninth Street and Garfield Avenue will be used as a faculty and student lot in the mornings and will be used for Doudna events in the evenings once it is constructed, Nadler said.

Gary Reed, director of facilities, planning and management, said construction would start in the fall once contracts are completed.

The lot will contain 34 spaces, and Reed said he hopes people can start using it by Oct. 1.

University Police Chief Adam Due said the permit hours for the lot would be from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

He said students, faculty and staff, who were assigned to Lawson Hall, Art Park West or Village Theater will use the lot.

“The need around fine arts will be great for both groups,” Due said.

Stephen Di Benedetto can be reached at 581-7942 or at sdibenedetto@eiu.edu.