Inside the Lines: Analyzing the Challenges of Campus Parking at TCU

How it all started....

In April, Texas Christian University announced that when school started up again in the fall, over 1,200 parking spots would be eliminated. Currently, in its place is construction and plans for a brand-new parking garage.

The parking garage is set to be ready spring 2027. This brand new parking garage is part of TCU's Master Plan.

“The Master Plan is simply a vision of how the campus will grow, and it thinks through the opportunities before we have a fire drill or have to come up with that solution quickly,” said Jason Soileiou, the vice chancellor of Planning, Design and Construction.

The Master Plan is there to welcome the next generation of Horned Frogs and Lead On to the next 150, administrators told the Star-Telegram.  The Master Plan must follow the four pillars: student centered-growth, research, scholarship and creative activities, athletics and community engagement.

"The master plan simply says, 'Okay, that's what the strategic plan wants to achieve. Now, here's a plan. Here's a plan for the physical campus to accommodate that.' The master plan doesn't say we should grow. It's saying if you grow, there's a strategy to accommodate," Soileiou said.

This Master Plan is also being looked at not only for student growth but also for the city of Fort Worth’s growth, now that more people are moving to the DFW area.

“Are we better engaging with the city of Fort Worth? Certainly, we want to provide adequate parking, one, at a micro level. But when you don’t provide adequate parking, many times our students will spill out into the neighborhoods, and that creates unhappy neighbors, and we have to deal with the neighbor relations,’ Soileiou said. “At a broader level, we all love TCU, so it’s important to uphold on both fronts, but Fort Worth is growing, and TCU is growing, so having that seamless parking is very important to us.”

The idea of TCU having parking lots was an idea that came from the first master plan which was looking at how TCU should look in the 21st century.

In the plan was the idea about two parking garages on east campus that would be three levels tall. (TCU Magazine)

Over the years, though, there have been reports from TCU360 about limited parking spots, areas claiming that students can park there but can't, parking tickets, and having to fight for parking spaces as well as risk parking illegally.

In 2005 though, Don Mills, the vice chancellor for student affairs at the time, predicted that parking would improve as more spots opened up that year. according to an article in TCU360. (TCU360)

Mills prediction, however, did not come to fruition as Victor Boschini, TCU's chancellor, had different ideas.

Boschini came previously from Illinois State University. His vision was that, because Illinois State University was a large, walkable campus where everything was so close, he wanted the TCU commute to be walking, too.

“He was very pro to parking on the edges; walk around, we’re not going to put in parking lots,” Katherine Forsythe, communication studies professor, said. "In his ten years, more and more parking lots began to disappear that used to be in the heart of campus, and so I’m curious about what Chancellor Pullin is going to do.”

The new parking garage will be located on the east side of campus, where an old parking lot used to be. The garage will be five stories and have 950 spots available for students, faculty, and staff. The police station will also be moving their location and will be occupying the first floor of the parking garage.

“It’s a great opportunity to bring the police onto the ground floor; it’ll create a stronger presence for the police on this side of campus where we are trying to create a housing community on that side,” Soileiou said. “It’ll give our campus police a really nice presence on this side of campus.”

The new parking costed $50,000 to build. Soileiou mentioned that building a new parking garage requires thoughtful planning.

"They're very expensive, and so we certainly have to be thoughtful about when to build a parking garage," Soileiou said. "Not to say we won't build more parking garages. It's gonna be thoughtful, but they're ungodly expensive."

Besides the plan for a new parking garage, there is also a plan to add more residence halls and apartments, so that there is more bed availability and room for students.

"We were about 1,200 beds short of meeting our first and second year," Soileiou said. "So we require first and second years to live on campus, but we didn't have enough beds to meet our own requirements. So this private partnership was a funding strategy to implement a plan that was in the housing plan to get housing on the east side."

The Fort Worth Report cited a university survey in which students expressed interest in living closer to campus.

“I applied for the on-campus housing, but then they put me on the waitlist,” Nicole Zummo, a junior strategic communication major, said. “I was told from an upperclassmen that she was also put on the waitlist the year prior and didn’t get off the waitlist.

"So, I decided to take myself off the waitlist and find off-campus housing. It’s definitely more expensive to live off campus, and it’s not as convenient as living on campus.”

Morado on Barry is the apartment building that TCU is currently constructing. It’s a luxury apartment that will have 780 beds for upperclassmen and graduates. The name Morado means purple in Spanish, a representation towards TCU. (Texas Christian University)

TCU is currently partnering with American Campus Communities to help bring this new campus back to life. OHT Partners is the contractor for Morado on Barry.

“We’re proud to partner with organizations that share our vision for thoughtful, student-centered growth,” Kit Moncrief, chair of the TCU Board of Trustees, said. “This level of outside investment reflects a deep confidence in the strength of our plans and the enduring value of a TCU education.” (Texas Christian University)

With new resident halls, apartments,and parking garages being built, students and faculty don’t have access to parking lots as close as they are used to.

Just recently though, it was announced by TCU Parking and Transportation, that Lot 19, which used to be used a parking lot for both commuters and visitors, is now going to be a parking lot for commuters while Lot 20 is the new parking lot for visitors.

Before TCU eliminated the parking spaces, first-years were allowed to have cars on campus. However, with the limited amount of parking available, first-years were not allowed to have cars on campus as Frog Alley was being used to accomadate commuters and Tier 1 parking for faculty.

Last year, 1,000 first-year students purchased parking passes. This year, only 400 spots were available for first-year students, so TCU held a raffle for parking passes for first-years. Nine hundred students entered the raffle.

“Having my car would kind of allow me to escape college life if I wanted to,” Hana Riley, a first-year nursing student, said to TCU360. "Sometimes I wish I could go for a drive or go places by myself, but I’m just stuck on campus, surrounded by people 24/7.”

TCU isn't the only school that doesn't allow first years to have cars on campus. A Fort Worth Magazine article mentioned that schools like Yale, Georgetown, Princeton, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Ohio State do not allow first-year students to have cars on campus, nor do they allow any student who chooses to live on campus to have a car. (Fort Worth Magazine)

This year 2,710 permits were purchased with 7, 465 parking spots available. 3,859 of those spots are reserved for Tier 1 and Tier 2 parking.

"While the available spots may not always align with everyone’s preferred proximity or convenience, they do exist and are accessible within the parameters of our parking policies,” said Adrian Andrews, assistant vice chancellor of public safety.

The University Baptist Church currently shares a parking lot with TCU. To address both the church's needs and the school's needs, an agreement was made on how and when the lots can be used.

“Since many of our church activities happen in the evenings and weekends and TCU has a significant need for parking on weekdays, we arranged a schedule that helps each of us,” Kathy Rhines, minister of administration at the church, said. “Occasionally, we have challenges with TCU cars parked in parts of the lot the church uses, but for the most part, the shared usage works really well.”

When big events at TCU occur(parents weekend, move-in, and graduation) people have had to use Alice Carson Learning Center's parking lot due to the limited amount of parking availability.

With big events at TCU, like parents’ weekend, move-in, and graduation, there have been times when visitors have used the Alice Carson Applied Learning Center’s parking lot, which is considered a challenge for the elementary school. However, the TCU police works with Alice Carson to assit with any parking issues due to those events.

“Officer Robert Rangel, the chief of police at TCU, is in really close contact with myself and my staff at Alice Carson. They notify us if there are any major events and the response protocol they will take, and he will put patrols in our car line to assist with any parking,” said Elizabeth Kelz, the principal of Alice Carson Applied Learning Center.

Right now, TCU is doing its Private Partnership Initiative, where they’re basically redesigning Berry Street.

“The intent is to create that campus edge environment to keep the students close to campus and give them a place for more community and for our alumni to come together,” Solieiou said.

The parking garage and the new residence hall and apartments aren’t the only planned construction projects. Starting next year, Ed Landreth will undergo renovations that won’t be completed until the 2028-2029 school year. In addition, Village East will expand to accommodate more students living on campus for the 2026-2027 school year.

To be able to prioritize on which projects should be started first, The planning, design, and construction team looks at the strategic plan and if it follows on or more of the pillars.

"When a project does come up, we compare, ‘Okay, how does this advance to the strategic plan?’ So, any project that furthers one or more of these pillars (student center growth, athletics, academics and research, community engagement) is going to be higher for the priorities," Solieiou said.

With big projects like this, there are some laws and regulations you have to follow. TCU currently works with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), which rates, assesses, and ensures buildings are resource-efficient for both people and the planet, according to a report in TCU360. Points are awarded to buildings based on location, transportation, water efficiency, energy use, atmosphere, etc. So far, TCU operates 23 LEED Gold buildings.

Many of the buildings on campus were funded by alumni donations through TCU Loyalty Giving; however, there is no designated fund for parking. According to the TCU Loyalty Office, the only parking-related donations come from reserved parking for season ticket holders for various sports.

When asked why donors provided funding in 2012 for the football parking lot, they declined to answer.