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The newly opened Frog Alley parking garage is a sign of change and progress in parking in Fort Worth, Texas on Monday Sept. 21, 2015. (Nick Pauszek/TCU360)
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A student hoping he or she can be lucky enough to find a spot in Fort Worth, Texas on Monday Sept. 21, 2015. (Nick Pauszek/TCU360)
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Students finding a new way to get to class and avoid having to deal with parking problems in Fort Worth, Texas on Monday Sept. 21, 2015. (Nick Pauszek/TCU360)
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Students and faculty must add extra time to their schedule to park in different lots this Thursday.
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Unfortunately though not all the sports are usable in the Frog Alley garage in Fort Worth, Texas on Monday Sept. 21, 2015. (Nick Pauszek/TCU360)
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A common sight in a parking lot, a student waiting for another student to leave so they can park in Fort Worth, Texas on Monday Sept. 21, 2015. (Nick Pauszek/TCU360)
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The Frog Alley parking garage is open, but students are still having a difficult time finding a parking spot.
TCU is growing each year, and according to the Office of Institutional Research there are now 10,323 students on campus — a 2.89 percent increase from last year.
The director of the physical plant, Harold Leeman, said there are 7,758 parking spots on campus for students, faculty and staff. If all 10,323 students plus faculty and staff wanted to park on campus, they would not be able to, since there are only 7,758 spots available.
DeAnn Jones, coordinator of parking and transportation services, said around 5,600 students have a current TCU parking pass.
Zane Goetz, a junior biochemistry major who commutes to class, said he still has difficulty parking on campus, even with the addition of the Frog Alley parking garage.
“There definitely is a parking problem,” Goetz said. “There aren’t enough spots, and they can’t handle the volume of kids trying to park.”
Jones said another factor in why it’s difficult to find a parking spot is that there are 925 spots students cannot use because they are reserved for faculty/staff, which is almost 12 percent of all parking spots on campus.
The Frog Alley parking garage adds approximately 480 new spots that weren’t previously there. However, the parking garage added only 30 new spots for students but 330 new visitor spots and 140 new spots outside the garage.
Even though these new spots were added by the Frog Alley garage, Alyssa Phillips, a freshman strategic communications major who lives on campus, said that the parking situation on campus is frustrating.
“Yes, TCU does having a parking problem,” Phillips said. “The [Frog Alley parking garage] also still runs out of spots in the garage which is annoying. The other day I had to go up to the Greek, so I tried to park up there, and there wasn’t a single spot open.”
The Worth Hills parking garage, which is expected to open July 31, 2016, will also add approximately 480 new spots. There were 700 spots originally in the areas that were around and behind Brachman Hall, but there will be a new total of 1,180 spots when finished. This garage will not need to be cleared out for football games, unlike the Frog Alley garage.
The Master Plan Committee that develops the plans for new buildings for TCU is currently working on an update that includes future new parking spots and structures, Leeman said.
