Janet Nobles leaves her Ocala home before dawn to get to work in Matherly Hall.
By 6:30 a.m., she’s circling around Parking Garage 4 on Museum Road and the Stephen C. O’Connell Center parking lot searching for a coveted space, even though her work day isn’t supposed to start until 8 a.m.
Yet she still struggles to find a parking space on UF’s campus.
“If you want parking, you better get here early, or you’re going to park farther away,” said Nobles, a 46-year-old office manager in the UF Department of Economics.
Construction on the chemistry building broke ground last week, permanently eliminating 106 spaces for faculty and staff, said Scott Fox, director of UF’s Transportation and Parking Services.
And commuters will have to brace themselves for more construction in the Spring, as another 46 parking spots will be lost within the gated lot in front of Dauer Hall, near the infirmary.
While there are no plans to create more parking, nine disabled spaces from the chemistry building parking lot were moved to the north of Fletcher Hall and the disabled employee spaces were moved to Fletcher Drive. Additionally, three carpool zones within the campus core were moved into a parking lot near Frazier Rogers Hall on Museum Road and Center Drive.
“No matter how accommodating we want to be, and no matter how we try to balance the needs of our very diverse customer groups, the reality is that everyone has to park a little further away,” Fox said.
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 8/26/2014 under the headline "Parking gets tighter on UF campus"]
