A new five-level parking structure with capacity for 1,100 vehicles will open under Roble Field in late January after three months of delays due to unanticipated construction obstacles.
Construction crews began working to revert Roble Field from a construction zone back to an outdoor recreation space in November with the expectation that the grass area will reopen in February.
The vehicle entrance to the new parking garage will be on Via Ortega. Pedestrians will also be able to enter the garage on Panama Street, on the Roble Gym side of Santa Teresa Street and at the corner of Santa Teresa Street and Via Ortega. Located between Arrillaga Outdoor Education and Recreation Center and the newly reopened Roble Gym, the structure will provide parking to community members on the west side of campus.
Besides restoring Roble Field, the last two months of construction will include finishing elevators and pedestrian entrances as well as extending Via Ortega to connect Panama Street and Santa Teresa Street.
While construction finishes, drivers have been using alternate parking including the year-old Searsville parking lot, which holds 600 vehicles and is located at the intersection of Santa Teresa Street and Campus Drive West.
Despite building the Searsville lot and the new Roble parking garage, Stanford continues to support alternative methods of transportation that reduce cars on campus.
In its recently submitted long-term land use permit application to Santa Clara County, the University asserted that future construction projects through 2035 will not produce additional commute trips on Stanford campus. While the application proposes a parking supply reserve, Stanford assures the county this additional parking would only be built under specific conditions because the University plans to continue to encourage other transportation modes.
Partly due to ongoing alternative transportation advocacy programs, half of Stanford employees not living on campus commute by means other than driving, and Stanford states it is currently developing additional initiatives.
While the Roble Field parking garage will benefit West Campus, potential parking shortages still loom next quarter for graduate students in Escondido Village, where some fear a parking crunch caused by the winter construction of a new 2,400-bed graduate housing complex. For the duration of construction, which is set to finish in 2019, parking capacity in Escondido Village is expected to be reduced by more than 800 spaces — a source of much deliberation at Graduate Student Council sessions.
Contact Jonathan Seymour at seymourj ‘at’ stanford.edu.