Flint Garage closing for repairs at end of quarter: Year-long closure will impact student, staff, faculty parking

The Flint Parking Garage at De Anza College will close for a $21 million renovation at the end of spring quarter and remain closed until June of 2017.

 
The garage will undergo seismic renovations that will define and address safety considerations and correct code compliance issues, according a 2014 report to the Board of Trustees. The project will be funded through a combination of Measure C funding and a certificate of participation, a type of loan.

 
The year-long closure will result in fewer parking spaces on campus, but administrators are implementing temporary parking solutions to help reduce the effect on students.  According to the 2014 report to the Board of Trustees, the Flint garage has 1,406 parking spaces.

 
These changes will help reduce the loss of parking spaces, but will not completely solve the problem.

 
“There will be a net loss of some parking on campus even with that, but we’re never totally full for parking except for the first couple of weeks of school,” said Donna Jones-Dulin, associate vice president of college operations.  “It’s when we really have our crunch, but most times we are not totally full.”

 
After the first weeks of school, parking typically becomes more available, and there are more spaces available than needed.

 
“By our standards we have in total about 400 extra parking spaces out of the 5,400 we have on the campus,” Jones-Dulin said.

 
To help compensate for the lost parking spaces, the soccer and baseball fields will be turned into temporary drop-and-go parking lots. The soccer field will be designated for staff and the baseball field for students.

 
“We’ll be working the first week trying to move people out and the temporary parking we will have will be supervised,” Jones-Dulin said.  “So we’re hoping we’ll be able to get students in and out quite quickly.”

 
This parking will be run by a professional group, similar to a valet service. Students will put their keys into a drop box and the keys will be returned when the student is ready to leave.

 
To further help students navigate the new parking situation, several spaces currently reserved for staff will be made available for student parking and the district will utilize social media to communicate with students about parking.

 
Some of the renovations needed to bring the structure up to 2010 code include the shear walls, footings and collectors which must be replaced; the steel frames of the stair towers and the stair-to-garage connectors must be repaired.

 
In addition to the seismic renovations, the remodel will include general improvements such as fresh paint, improvements to the elevator and emergency phones, as well as replacing the current lighting with LED lighting.

 
“Not only is it brighter lighting and will give more illumination for people using the structure, there will also be energy savings,” Jones-Dulin said.