The Fine Arts East parking lot was converted from a staff/upperclassmen lot to a staff lot Wednesday – just one of three changes to Eastern parking to happen within a month.

Gary Reed, director of facilities planning and management, said the lot was converted to a staff lot to support the academic functions within the Doudna Fine Arts Center.

The old signs in the Fine Arts East parking lot, north of Hayes Avenue and east of Doudna, were replaced Wednesday with new signs.

Lieutenant John Hatfill of the University Police Department said the original plan was to replace the signs during the summer.

“There was a delay in getting the signs made and putting them out,” he said.

Now that the signs are up, UPD will be putting flyers on vehicles parked in the Fine Arts East lot to notify drivers of the change.

Hatfill said citations for parking in the lot would not be given right away.

“We will give them about a week’s grace period,” he said.

Hatfill said the same would be done once the west row of the Ninth Street lot that faces Ninth Street is also converted to a staff lot. The west row contains a total of 26 parking spaces.

The other rows will remain available to staff, upperclassmen and underclassmen.

Hatfill said the signs would be up within the next week.

Additional parking is being built across from the Fine Arts East parking lot on the corner of Ninth Street and Garfield Avenue.

Reed said the lot on Ninth Street and

Garfield Avenue will be call the Buzzard H-3 lot and will support the additional vehicular needs of Doudna.

Staff and upperclassmen will be able to park at the Buzzard H-3 lot, which will have a total of 34 parking spaces.

“It should be done by the end of this month, or the beginning of October,” Hatfill said.

Kristina Peters can be reached at 581-7936 or at kmpeters2@eiu.edu.