The bid for a new parking structure for GCC students was accepted by the Board of Trustees on Feb. 27.

This bid was presented by GCC Business Services Director William F. Taylor with a complete list of expenses, costs and revenues. The total revenue for this project is $29,266,000, whereas the total estimated cost is $29,265,545.

According to Taylor, “The Public Agency Law Group, gives approval to negotiate with low bidder for cost reduction changes in plans and specifications.”

According to the traffic study done on Mountain Street for the parking structure, 1,200 cars enter the freeway per hour. The City of Glendale requires GCC to widen Mountain Street and also to move the parking entrance as far west as possible. The estimated cost of this project is $910,000.

The city also requires the college to add a fourth lane at a cost of $125,000. However, they have turned down all of the college’s appeals and proposals for financial support.

Other repairs and renovations to GCC’s parking buildings have been recommended and requested from the city, for which the estimated cost is $300,000. But the board preferred to save the money and paint the parking lots’ walls later on. “I don’t want to pay $300,000 just to make the buildings look beautiful,” said Dr. Armine Hacopian, a member of the Board of Trustees.

To get the parking structure project going, the college needs additional funds. Therefore the board decided to raise the student parking permit fees from $50 to $65. The $15 increasing of the fees will add approximately $300,000 to the college’s budget per year.

To raise the budget even more, Victor I. King, another GCC board member, recommended that “we can even raise the parking fee more than $15, just as they did at California State University at Los Angeles.” But his idea was rejected by most of the board members.
The new parking structure will be located in parking lot B and will contain around 1,500 spaces, two elevators and six floors. According to Taylor, the college can save $1 million by cutting off the sixth floor, which would also eliminate almost 250 spaces. However, the board has decided not to cut the sixth floor off.

Lawrence R. Serot, GCC Executive Vise President, Administrative Services said, “We have decided to keep the sixth floor because since it’s bond money and we won’t [have] another bond, we will have to use the most of it and maximize the parking space as much as possible.”