De Anza College will introduce a new parking permit system starting winter quarter, requiring students and employees to register for free digital permits to park on campus.

The permit registration will be available through a new online system that will be managed by the Foothill-De Anza Police Department.

Daniel Acosta, FHDA Chief of Police, said students will enter their vehicle information upon enrollment and receive a digital permit, no physical permit will be needed. Visitors will have to purchase a $3 per day permit for on campus parking.

S. Zeynep Yesilyurt, 18, electrical engineering major, raised concerns about the new digital parking permit being tied to one vehicle. 

“I think it just adds unnecessary complication to a very simple system,” Yesliyurt said. “If a digital permit is just for one specific car, and not a general personal permit it might make things harder, because some people don’t have access to the same car everyday.”

For the rest of the fall quarter, students and visitors can park for free without a permit in all non-staff designated parking spaces. 

Employees will also be able to park for free, but they will need to obtain a free temporary permit from the campus police substation for fall quarter. Starting Nov. 1, FHDA police will issue warnings for the first two weeks, then citations will be issued for vehicles parked in staff spaces.

Administrative Assistant Kayla Luis, who parks in staff parking, says that she struggles to find parking in the morning.

“I do have a hard time finding parking in the morning, but I never directly associated it with students taking these spaces, I just figured there wasn’t enough space for the staff.” Luis said.

Luis added that she thinks this new system will help keep students out of staff parking, but also has her own concerns.

“Probably in the first few weeks they will monitor it, but my assumption is as time goes on, it won’t be as monitored and students will just get away with doing it again,”Luis said.

Luis said she wishes there was clearer communication on parking permits.

“I would suggest maybe having a news announcement or posting signs in the parking lot, because I had a lot of students constantly asking me if they had to pay for parking,” Luis said.

More details regarding the new parking permit system is expected to be shared later in the fall quarter. For any questions, please contact the FHDA Police.

“Hopefully that means there will be more parking available for staff,” Luis said.