John Koenig

The 37 students who park their vehicles in the Putnam Hall parking lot might have to find new spots if some members of the UW-Eau Claire community get their way.

Under a plan created by Sean Hartnett, department representative on University Senate’s Physical Plant Planning Committee, the parking lot would be turned into “a multi-use park entrance for individuals, small groups and an outdoor classroom.”

Although members of the committee presented the plans to University Senate at its Jan. 31 meeting, both University Senate and Student Senate have yet to discuss the issue, after which the chancellor would have to make any final decision.

“Part of the reason there was a presentation to University Senate was because we didn’t know where (the project) was procedurally,” Hartnett said. “Largely, this was to bring it back to the university community’s attention.”

Introduced in spring 2004, a few months before the reconstruction stage of the university’s Chippewa Riverbank Restoration Project, the idea for a park started as a way to add to the beautification of the riverfront at the entrance to Putnam Park.

A state natural area, Putnam Park extends into various sections of campus, including the area where the School of Nursing stands; the entrance to the park is at the back of the parking lot.

“The parking lot is the epicenter of the park,” Hartnett said. “If you took the campus and wiped it clean, that would be the middle.”

Hartnett, who also attended meetings during the planning of downtown’s Phoenix Park, said consultants presented a standard of land use that placed uses in a ranked list. According to the list parks and green space topped the list, while parking lots were one tier above landfills.

“If you look on our south side of Garfield, our campus exists on the lower end of the spectrum,” he said.

After looking at other schools in Wisconsin that have park spaces on their campuses, Hartnett said he, along with members of the Putnam Park Commission and University Senate’s Physical Plant Planning Committee, organized a plan to add picnic tables and park benches as well as a fire pit and outdoor shelter area.

“This is what campuses are doing – developing green space,” he said, citing other UW System parks such as UW-Madison’s Picnic Point. “Our goal here is to elevate the standard of use.”

Sophomore Ryan Goodrich lives in Putnam Hall and parks in its lot about five times a year, or whenever there happens to be a spot open. Otherwise, he has to park in the Towers lot.

Goodrich said he had just gotten off of crutches during the first few weeks of last semester and had to either wait for the residence hall shuttle van or walk up and down the hill every day.

“People like me are getting screwed,” he said. “Having an ‘R’ lot on lower campus is a really convenient thing.”

Hartnett said that though parking would be something officials would have to deal with, he feels there are ways to get around the issue. He cited three possible solutions, including building a new lot, making better use of the existing Water Street lot by adding R-permit spots, and absorbing the lost spots into what parking areas there already are on campus.

Adding a small lot to an area somewhere between McIntyre Library and Putnam Hall could replace the three hall director spots, the one handicapped spot and the motorcycle parking area that currently exist, he said.

“The question is, are somehow getting rid of forty spots on campus more important than the park?” Hartnett said, adding that “the most likely case would be to make better use of our Water Street lot.”

As far as having to walk from Lower Campus residence halls to the Water Street parking lot, Hartnett said that in most cases where housing is built on “choice riverfront lots” residents usually don’t have immediate access to parking facilities.

Hartnett said, “We want to ‘unpave a parking lot and put up a paradise.’ “