Firstname Lastname

1385 Woodroffe Avenue

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
K2G 1V8

November 17, 2015

Mr. William Hennessy

1385 Woodroffe Avenue
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
K2G 1V8

Dear Mr. Hennessy:

Attached is a copy of my feasibility report on parking at Algonquin College.

As a student who uses, and has used the parking at Algonquin College for the past two years, this
topic came of interest to me as I have constantly struggled to find a parking space in the lot I’ve
paid to park in. I began to think there must be a way to improve the parking situation here at
Algonquin.

This report will look into two ideas to better improve the parking at Algonquin College. The first
idea examined was to expand the parking lots and the second idea was to look into building a
parking garage.

You will find in my report that implementing a parking garage is the recommended solution for
improving the available parking space at Algonquin College. While expanding the current
parking lots is alternative solution, is does not provide a long-term fix where the parking garage
does.

I would like to give special thanks to Algonquin College for providing me with facts on their
website that have helped support my research in my report.

In completing this report I have learned much about the cost to implement different parking
solutions. I have also learned a large amount of what other local schools have done to address
their parking issues and how their proposed solutions turned out. Through my research, it was
discovered that there is a lot more planning that needs to go into large projects like these than
meets the eye.

If any clarification is require, feel free to contact me though email at: ____@algonquinlive.com.

Sincerely,

Firstname Lastname
Algonquin College Parking Feasibility Report

By: Firstname Lastname

Submitted to William Hennessy,

In partial fulfillment of the requirements of ENL8720

Algonquin College

Computer Systems Technician Program

November 17, 2015

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures:……………………………………………………………………….iii

Glossary:………………………………………………………………………………………….iv
Introduction: .................................................................................................................................... 5
The Problem: ................................................................................................................................... 6
Expanding the Current Lots: ........................................................................................................... 7
Building a Parking Garage: ........................................................................................................... 10
Cost to Implement: .................................................................................................................... 10
What Other Schools Have Done: .................................................................................................. 12
Carleton University: .................................................................................................................. 12
University of Ottawa: ................................................................................................................ 13
Conclusion: ................................................................................................................................... 13
Recommendations: ........................................................................................................................ 14
References: .................................................................................................................................... 15

ii
List of Tables and Figures:
Figure 1. Algonquin College’s Woodroffe Campus Map. The picture shows the layout of the
buildings, parking lots, and land owned by Algonquin College…………………………………8

Figure 2. Parking structure costs 2014. The image provides cost analysis related to the
construction of a parking structure………………………………………………………………11

Figure 3. Carleton University’s parking structure. The picture is taken of Carleton universities
newest parking structure that was built in 2013-2014…………………………………………...12

iii
Glossary:
Lot(s) – a short form term for a parking lot or parking lots.

Parking structure - another term for a parking garage or parking facility. A building designed for
vehicle parking.

iv
Introduction:
The purpose of this feasibility report is to propose two ideas to better improve the current

parking situation at Algonquin College. Parking is an important service provided by the College

which needs to be maintained and improved when required.

Algonquin College’s parking is hectic and chaotic. It is often a nightmare to find any available

space to park. This is unacceptable as students/staff have to pay a large sum of money ranging

from roughly 600 to 800 dollars for annual parking, on top of the cost of tuition [1]. More

parking passes are sold than the number of available spaces which means that pass holders do not

get to park in the lot they have paid for because it is full. We get stuck parking in a lot farther

away from the College and are not guaranteed a parking space. Algonquin College has a growing

student base with over 20000 full time students currently enrolled [2]. The parking situation at

Algonquin will continue to get worse unless something is done to address the issue.

My proposed solution is to look at expanding the already paved lots to accommodate for more

parking, or to implement a parking garage into the college. The proposal will look into the

problems with the current parking lots, the benefits of expanding new lots/building a parking

garage, the cost of implementation, what other schools have done, and make a recommendation

of what should be done.

This report will appeal to not only to Algonquin College itself but the students that pay for

parking passes. The report will find a solution to improve the parking service at Algonquin

5
College and ensure that students and staff are getting their money’s worth when purchasing a

parking pass.

While this report will look at implementing a parking garage and paving new lots, it will not go

into the technical details or explanation of how to expand parking lots or how to build a parking

garage. It will also not provide any blueprints or building specifications. It is assumed the college

will determine with the hired contractors, the layout and building specifications for expanding

the lots or constructing a parking garage.

The Problem:
Algonquin College has become a popular choice for students who want to continue in secondary

education. As the college has expanded the parking lots have not. To make things worse, the

construction of the newest student commons building in 2012 had decreased the already scarce

space available for parking [3]. Nothing has been done to expand the parking lots while the

college continues to grow.

Not only is this affecting the pass holders that use the parking lots at Algonquin College but it

has also posed problems for the surrounding community. Students and staff who can’t find

parking or are on the wait list for a parking permit end up illegally parking on residential streets

and taking up parking at nearby businesses that have lots. In 2009, CBC news reported on the

issue looking specifically into College Square located beside Algonquin College. The manager

of the College Square plaza had many complaints of students using the lots inside the plaza to

park which prevented legitimate customers from finding a place to park when shopping [4]. A

student from the college was interviewed by CBC who stated “Since I'm on the waiting list [for a

parking pass] at Algonquin, I have to park at Loblaws,” [4]. Furthermore in 2011, one third of
6
the cities complaints to the City of Ottawa’s “311” number were regarding parking around the

College [3]. According to James Culic’s article “Outcry over $52M Algonquin students' lounge”,

the majority of calls were from the bus station across from the campus that was full of student

vehicles causing bus riders to have to park illegally to use the park-and-ride.

Algonquin’s parking situation has been causing a variety of ongoing problems for a long period

of time. As a result local surrounding businesses and communal services are suffering as students

overwhelm their own available lots. It is Algonquin Colleges responsibly to ensure there is

enough space to park at the college and to stop the negative impact being had on the local

community.

Expanding the Current Lots:

The first idea that was looked at is to simply expand the current parking lots to allow parking for

more vehicles. Paving another asphalt parking lot is a low cost, practical solution to provide

more parking spaces for students who own vehicles and park at Algonquin [5]. The average cost

to build a 50,000 square foot parking lot is approximately 1.25 US dollars per square foot, or

81631.25 Canadian dollars in total for the project [6]. For a multi-million dollar organization

such as Algonquin College, this is a small sum to pay. Other types of parking lots that could be

paved include concrete lot and brick paver lots; however they are much more expensive to install

[5]. In terms of where another parking lot could be installed, there is unused land to the east of

“S” building as shown in figure 1:

7
Figure 1. Algonquin College’s Woodroffe Campus Map. The picture shows the layout of the buildings, parking lots,
and land owned by Algonquin College. [7]

There is also available space to the north-west of the residential parking lot where more spaces

could be paved, however it is limited and would only provide a small number of more parking

spaces. Adding an additional asphalt parking lot would be a cheap and quick solution to create

more usable parking space for the college. They do require ongoing maintenance but seeing as

Algonquin College already maintains their current various lots without issues, they should have

enough resources to uphold one more lot. If not, the revenue made from parking passes sold for

the new lot could go towards the cost of upkeep. Also seeing as asphalt parking lots can last

approximately 20-30 years, there is a strong return on investment and profit that can be made [5].

8
However one problem with expanding the current lots is that land is a valuable resource for

Algonquin College to have in possession and is limited as shown in the campus map above. Most

schools would rather save the land they own in case there is a need to expand buildings or

construct a new building for the campus. It is often a struggle to find the balance between

allocating enough land for parking while still having enough excess in the event of expanding a

campus building structure. This is well explained by Matthew Yglesias in his article “Colleges

Should Focus On Teaching Students, Not Giving Them Subsidized Parking Spaces”. He states

that: “Simply put, land is a valuable commodity and universities possess a limited amount of it.

If large tracts of university-owned land must be devoted to parking lots and roads to facilitate

students’ automobile use, then that means less space is available for dorms and classroom

buildings. This, in turn, means that as universities enroll more students in the coming years they

will need to spend substantial amounts of money acquiring additional land upon which they can

locate buildings” [8]. Algonquin College has already shown it’s preference for buildings over

parking with the construction of the Students Common building.

Furthermore, paving new lots may only be a temporary fix in the long run as the college will

continue to grow. Eventually the newly paved lots would fill up and we would be stuck in the

same present parking situation again and faced with the same problems.

9
Building a Parking Garage:
The second idea that was looked is to build a parking garage on Campus for student, staff and

visitor parking. The main benefit is that a parking garage would not require more land currently

not in use. It could be vertically built upon the already paved lots 8, 9 or 12. A parking garage

would also be a more future proof solution as they can design it to be expanded on height wise. If

parking space runs out another couple of levels can be added to the top of the structure.

Construction could start during non-peak times for the college so parking would not be strongly

disrupted for students and staff. This would most likely be summertime as many students are off

and do not start back up until the fall. However one problem is that the construction of a parking

structure usually takes longer than a few months and returning students and staff that use

Algonquin parking would most likely be affected by the construction in the fall/winter semester.

Carleton Universities parking garage took roughly a year to build so we could expect to look at

the same timeline for constructing one here at Algonquin College [9].

Cost to Implement:

The main drawback to building a parking garage at Algonquin College is that they are extremely

expensive to construct. The first source looked at states the average parking garage containing

145,000 square feet at five stories high can cost anywhere from around 8-9 million dollars US to

build [10]. About 6.5 million dollars would be invested into materials that would include

concrete, steel framing and brick facing [10]. All plumbing, masonry, electrical and carpentry

service would be included in that as well [10]. Contractor fees would be around 1.6 million

dollars and architectural fees would add up to roughly 400,000 dollars [10]. Converted to

Canadian dollars, the total project would be approximately 11 million dollars to construct a fully

functional parking structure.

10
The second source looked at was a 2014

parking structure cost guide produced by the

company Carl Walker.inc. They provided

statistics on the cost to build a parking

garage across 27 different cities in the

United States which can be examined in

figure 2. Looking at the information

provided, the national average cost per

square foot is 54.05 US dollars to build a

parking garage [11]. When we multiply this

by the 145,000 square feet average for a 5

story high parking garage, we get 7.84

million US dollars or approximately 10

million Canadian dollars total.

Compared to the first source looked at, the

cost evaluations match very closely. It is

safe to say it would probably cost Algonquin

College anywhere from 10-11 million

dollars minimum to construct a parking

garage on campus. One problem is that

Figure 2, Parking structure costs 2014. The image
Algonquin does not openly provide how provides cost analysis related to the construction of a
parking structure. [11]
much they make each year or what their

budget is so it is hard to determine

11
whether or not this is an expense the college could afford.

What Other Schools Have Done:

Carleton University:

Carleton University, a well-known university local to Ottawa has recently built a parking garage

to address their parking needs. The construction of the garage was started in May 2013 and

finished around the same time in 2014 [12]. The structure holds 615 cars and was designed to be

able to add three more floors in the future if needed [12]. It also features a locker room on the

first level for the Universities sport’s team to use and a fitness center on the second floor for

students and staff to use [12]. The reasoning behind building the parking garage as opposed to

an alternative solution was that it allowed the university to currently expand their parking, and

expand their parking in the future in an organized manner[12]. As the school is largely commuter

based, the parking garage was a good step forward in fixing the shortage of parking spaces. The

parking structure can be seen in Figure 3 below:

Figure 3, Carleton University’s parking structure. The picture is taken of Carleton universities newest
parking structure that was built in 2013-2014. [13]

12
University of Ottawa:

The University of Ottawa is another big university local to Ottawa. The university has not had

any recent construction of parking structures like Carleton University has, however the school

does already maintain five existing parking garages [14]. The five parking garages provide a

total of 1242 parking spaces for students, staff and visitors to use [14]. This being said, Ottawa

University has a much higher student population compared to Algonquin College with

approximately 43000 enrolled as of 2013 [14]. However, similar to Carton University situation,

having a parking structure(s) on campus seems to be an adequate solution to provide enough

parking for students attending the University of Ottawa.

Conclusion:
After completely the necessary research it was discovered that both ideas of expanding the

current lots or building a parking garage could be used to improve the parking at Algonquin

College. Expanding the current lots is a cheaper, more cost effective alternative to creating more

available space. However expanding the current lots is only effective as a short-term fix and

usable land for expansion is limited. Building a parking garage offers more longevity as a

solution and would not require unused land to construct but it is a much more costly solution to

implement and would require a lot more planning. Looking at other schools in the Ottawa

regions, parking garages have been proven to be a good way of ensuring parking space needs are

met. Carleton University recently build their own parking structure for students and staff to use

and the University of Ottawa has five parking garages of their own they currently maintain.

13
Recommendations:
I think the best choice would be for Algonquin College to implement a parking structure into the

campus. While it is an expensive option, it is much more future-proof than expanding the

current lots and would not require more land as it could be built on the already paved parking

lots. Student facilities could also be incorporated into the structure as what Carleton University

did. While the parking garage would eventually pay for itself, the problem is that Algonquin

College does not openly provide information regarding their yearly income or budget. This

makes it hard to determine whether or not it is a project the college can fund. If money is an

issue, expanding the parking lots by paving more asphalt lots could be an effective temporary

solution.

14
References:
[1] Algonquin College, “Rates.” Algonquin College, 2015. [Online]. Available:
http://www.algonquincollege.com/parking/parking-services/rates/ [November 3, 2015].

[2] Algonquin College, “Fast Facts.” Algonquin College, 2015. [Online]. Available:
http://www.algonquincollege.com/public-relations/fast-facts/ [November 3 2015].

[3] J. Culic, “Outcry over $52M Algonquin students' lounge.” TheWhig, March 18, 2011.
[Online]. Available: http://www.thewhig.com/2011/03/18/outcry-over-52m-algonquin-
students-lounge [November 3 2015].

[4] Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, “Algonquin College students clog plaza parking.”
CBCNews, October 5, 2009. [Online]. Available:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/algonquin-college-students-clog-plaza-parking-
1.857798 [November 3, 2015].

[5] AllAboutParkingLots. "Asphalt Parking Lots." Allaboutparkinglots.com, 2015. [Online].

Available: http://www.allaboutparkinglots.com/asphalt-parking-lots/ [November 12,
2015].

[6] Steve, “What’s The Average Cost To Pave A Parking Lot?” FixAsphalt, May 19, 2015.
[Online]. Available: http://www.fixasphalt.com/blog/cost-to-pave-parking-lot [November
12, 2015].

[7] Algonquin College, “Woodroffe Campus Map.” Algonquin College, 2015. [Online].
Available: http://www.algonquincollege.com/parking/map/ [November 3, 2015].

[8] M. Yglesias, “Colleges Should Focus On Teaching Students, Not Giving Them
Subsidized Parking Spaces.” ThinkProgress, June 27, 2011. [Online]. Available:
http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2011/06/27/255176/colleges-should-focus-on-teaching-
students-not-giving-them-subsidized-parking-spaces/ [November 12, 2015].

[9] C. O’Gorman, “Parking garage $9 million over budget.” The Charlatan, December 05,
2013. [Online]. Available: http://charlatan.ca/2013/12/parking-garage-9-million-over-
budget/ [November 12, 2015].

[10] FIXR, “How much does it cost to build the average parking garage?” FIXR, 2015.
[Online]. Available: http://www.fixr.com/costs/build-parking-garage [November 12.
2015].

[11] G. Cudney, “Parking Structure Cost Outlook for 2014.” Carl Walker Inc. 2014 [Online].
Available: http://www.carlwalker.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/April-Newsletter-
2014.pdf [November 11, 2012].

15
[12] K. Strauss, “Campus continues to grow and improve.” Carleton Now. 2013. [Online].
Available: http://carletonnow.carleton.ca/april-2013/campus-continues-to-grow-and-
improve/ [October 20, 2015].

[13] Doran, “Home.” Doran, 2015. [Online]. Available: http://www.doran.ca/ [November 12,
2015].

[14] E. Hyde, “Now we can dream: University of Ottawa reveals master plan.” Ottawa
Citizen, April 3, 2015. [Online]. Available: http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-
news/now-we-can-dream-university-of-ottawa-reveals-master-plan [November 12, 2015].

16