When you can’t build out, you have to build up. That’s exactly what is taking place near the Latter-day Saints Institute of Religion.
To meet student demand, the institute is constructing a new building that will hold upwards of 10,000 people at any given time.
After construction workers complete it this coming summer, they will begin work on a parking structure to serve all of those people.
The five-level, 600-stall structure will benefit not only the institute, but the University of Utah as well.
“President [Bernie] Machen saw this as a chance to partner with the LDS Church and also do something good for the campus, the community and light rail,” said Michael Benson, Machen’s special assistant.
Benson has been Machen’s point man on issues of light rail. The U wants the trains to continue from the stadium parking lot to the hospital after the Olympics. The state and the Utah Transit Authority favor the plan, which is now awaiting funding from the federal government. If the funding comes through, the line would go up South Campus Drive.
To help speed up the process, the U promised to build a parking structure, Benson said.
After securing $7.5 million in funding from the state Legislature, Benson started looking for a locale for the structure. The U contemplated putting one east of the stadium or near Pioneer Memorial Theatre.
The U decided the LDS Church’s land adjacent to the Huntsman Center would be the best locale.
Last year, Machen approached church officials who said they liked the idea of the structure, but wanted to build it themselves.
“I think the church could build a bigger deck and a nicer deck that would fit in architecturally with the new institute,” Benson said.
“It seems like more of a goodwill gesture to the university than anything else,” Institute Director Paul Browning said. “One thing that people overlook is every additional parking space the institute creates adds to the overall store of parking for the U.”
The U will lease 400 parking spots from the LDS Church, some of which will be used as a park-and-ride for light rail, and some will be general U parking.
Benson hopes the construction of the structure, part of which will be built underground, would conclude in time for the men’s and women’s basketball season, but LDS Church officials have yet to complete a solid timeline.
The U does not look at the 400 spots as additional parking, however.
“I’m not sure that they will be that great of an improvement. They will replace what we have lost in the last couple of years,” said Alma Allred, director of parking services.
Before the institute broke ground on its new facility, it reclaimed 450 parking stalls it allowed the U to lease.
The new structure will return the parking relationship between the LDS Church and the U, which helps both at different times. During game days, the U will use the entire facility after 5 p.m., and the institute will use the whole structure on Sundays.
The institute will also claim surface-area parking, when the U removes the World War II-era buildings that now house such campus entities as Campus Recreation Services, University Surplus and Parking and Transportation Services.
Benson said the U has yet to locate new space for the three offices.
He also said the institute has tentative plans to build a second parking structure next to the first one, if needed.