Parking Problems Around UTEP Despite Space Availability

EL PASO, TX. – City Council will discuss the parking problems in the neighborhoods around UTEP during its Tuesday meeting.

Residents tell ABC-7 cars parked one right after another in the Kern Place neighborhood make for very difficult driving. Many areas along both sides of the street along Campbell, north of Mesa and Stanton are equally jam-packed.

We caught several students parking in the residential area Monday morning. They said parking on campus, including the new garage, is too expensive for them.

Parking permits range from $75 for remote lots to $250 for the new parking garage. But those who choose not to pay and to park in the neighborhoods around campus are making it difficult to access the neighborhood — not only for those driving through the area — but those who live there as well.

“At a minimum, I would like where they can only park on one side of the street and they couldn’t park up to the intersection where you can’t get across,” said Phillip Morgan, a resident of the Kern Place neighborhood.

UTEP says it is not lack of space that keeps students away from its lots. Seventy percent of spaces in the university’s new parking garage are for students. That’s more than 1,100 spaces.

UTEP actually oversold student spaces in the lot, issuing roughly 1,700 passes for the garage, but officials say overflow hasn’t been an issue since most students are not in attendance Monday through Friday.