Students who want to avoid citations, accidents or being late for class should give themselves up to 90 minutes early to find parking, Moorpark College official said.
With no grace period, students have to get a parking pass or they will get cited for a ticket. Parking violations are the same as a semester-long permit, $50. Students can buy a $2 daylong pass if they don’t want to get a parking permit.
Lt. Greg Beckley of the Moorpark College Campus Police suggests that students should get to school at 10 a.m. to assure themselves a parking spot should they arrive about 8:30.
“It seems like the entire student body gets here at 9 a.m.,” said Beckley. “The most popular lot is the F lot in the Academic Center. I guess it is kind of centralized for everybody.”
According to Beckley he said that by Mid-February it should be easier to park with students dropping their classes.
Students have to find a different area to park, now that the overflow parking lot by the gym is under construction.
Due to the construction of the new parking structure, there are fewer parking spaces in the lower campus until its completion in spring 2014. Once the project is complete it will change the total available spots for students by 411 spots from 4,253 to 3,842. Until the parking structure is complete, students will be redirected to the practice football field where there will be 210 available parking spaces.
For additional parking spaces you can go to the commuter lots over by the train station on 300 High Street Amtrak, Metro link Station in Moorpark. From there you can use the public transit to get up to the Performing Arts building at Moorpark College.
Lt. Greg Beckley of the Moorpark College Campus Police said that the best way is for Moorpark College to adjust to not having a grace period since other schools like UCLA don’t have one.
“I think it is a great preparation for life,” said Beckley.
Andrew Blackwelder, student senator, said that he has experienced first-hand road rage.
“I parked in a spot and this woman came to my car and started yelling at me that I stole their spot,” said Blackwelder.
Kristina Hyder, 18, undecided major, said that the new parking structure is causing a lot of problems for students.
“I believe that the parking structure will be helpful to the student body, but for the moment it is just ridiculous,” said Hyder.
