The new parking garage will now be further away from the edge of Bellaire Drive North than previously planned in order to alleviate neighbors’ previous concerns.
For their part, the majority of the 45 neighbors said they were appeased by the change at a neighborhood meeting Wednesday evening.
Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities Todd Waldvogel said the structure was originally planned to be 42 feet from the edge of Bellaire Drive North. Instead, the location will be 180 feet away due to aesthetic concerns raised at the last town hall meeting.
One resident at the meeting said, “I really appreciate what you’ve done.”
Another resident said he was pleased with the changes for the parking garage, but addressed a lack of communication between TCU officials and those in the neighborhood association.
“As far as communication, you get an F. You had my email address, I’m easy go get in touch with,” he said. “Your communication was pretty much nonexistent.”
In an email, Lisa Albert, TCU director of strategic communications, wrote that “TCU sent three mailings to neighbors in the area most affected by the parking garage.”
Albert wrote that the second postcard was larger than the first, “after TCU heard from neighbors that the first postcard was small and therefore easy to miss.”
Neighbors were also notified via their email addresses that they provided at the neighborhood meetings, Albert wrote.
The parking garage, or “garage-mahal” as Chancellor Victor Boschini coined, will now be located intersecting present-day Brachman Hall.
Waldvogel said the plan is for the garage to have one entrance and one exit.
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Kathy Cavins-Tull said Brachman Hall will be demolished after the next school year.
Waldvogel also said the original proposal included a human resources office and TCU police office next to the parking garage. The human resources office has been removed due to its close proximity to Bellaire Drive North.
Architectural elements were an important part of planning the garage, which will have the standard “TCU buff” brick color, he said.
The garage will be six levels and about 67 feet tall, Waldvogel said.