Parking Lot Crisis Faces Med Complex

              Parking Lot Crisis
Faces Med Complex
By MARGARET MARTIN
Times Medical Writer
A nightmarish parking problem Looms
at the Confederate Memorial Hospital-
LSU Medical School complex on Kings
Highway where insufficient parking and
poor planning already are resulting in
congestion and hazardous traffic condi-tions.
Neither p a t i e n t s ' cars nor those
driven by hospital personnel can be
accommodated on existing parking lots.
Cars bearing Confederate stickers line
the streets daily for two blocks in every
direction from the medical center, and
the overflow is causing headaches for
merchants at a nearby shopping center.
Meanwhile construction is under way
on the new $30.5 million medical school.
Completion is expected in 1975 when it
will bring at least 1,000 additional
persons into the center and at that time
only 858 parking spaces will be available,
based on current plans.
Associate Medical School Dean Dr.
George Meneely has said that there was
no parking plan submitted with the
medical school plan.
He said he hopes more parking can be
developed, but at this time there is no
money for it.
MORALE PROBLEM
Rod Yeager, director of Confederate,
said p a r k i n g is already a morale
problem with Confederate employes. He
hopes to enlarge one of the present lots
for employes when present construction
is finished. It will not be a major
expansion of parking facilities, but will
pick up a few more slots.
Yeager said a multiple-level garage
for 400 public and employe cars is at
least four years down the line, "If
everything goes well."
As far back as 1970 architect William
B. Wiener was warning that lack of
parking was very critical. He is a
member of the Wiener, Morgan &
O'Neal, one of the firms involved in
planning the new medical center.
At a meeting of Confederate and LSU
officials, Wiener said, ". . . it's going to
get more critical. We will do all we can,
but we can't manufacture land.
"We do not tell you that you will have
adequate parking, but we tell you we will
do what we can witli all available
property."
He predicted then that "someday you
will have to go to structural parking."
One Confederate board member said
at that time that even federal officials
had expressed concern about the parking
situation.
The question is what will he done
initially when the medical school opens
in 1975.
200 SPACES NEEDED
City Planner George Parsons esti-mates
the need roughly at 200 additional
7 spaces on completion of the medical
school. Parsons emphasizes that the
planning commission approved the plans
before he came to Shreveport. He says
he was not aware of the details of the
development.
H o w e v e r , he said total parking
requirements would total 900 if these
"hypothetical standards" were used:
One space per two beds; one space per
two students, and one space for three
employes.
Parsons said that parking is the last
thing to be considered for state buildings.
He said that — it is still possible to
n e g o t i a t e with the state for more
parking.
Mayor Calihoun Allen says steps will
be taken to remedy the situation; that he
has discussed it with state officials and
that they are aware of the problem.
However, he a d m i t t e d under close
questioning that there are no concrete
plans at this point, to provide additional
parking; nor were such plans included
when the city issued a building permit
giving the project the go-ahead in 1971,
during his administration.
He said he discussed the problem with
both former Gov. John McKeithen and
I the then LSU Dean Dr. Edgar Hull prior
to construction and was unable to get
parking included in the plans.
Allen contends that the ciy has not
legal authority to force compliance by
the state with municipal regulations —
i n c l u d i n g off-street parking require-ments.
And he pointed out that when tt
city succeeded in persuading LSU to
obtain a building permit at least the
city's electrical and plumbing require-ments
were assured.
However, the mayor also said the
value of the medical chool to this area
is such that he was willing to overlook
parking requirements. "Would you stop
construction on a $30.5 million building
like that because it did not have enough
parking?" he asked.
"MESS" PREDICTED
S h r e v e p o r t traffic Engineer Joe
Burleson shook his head over the
situation and predicted "a mess" when
the medical school is completed. Burle-son
emphasized that he had not been
consulted about tine project; that no
traffic or parking plan was filed with
him. However, he noted that the current
practice of his reviewing construction
plans was instituted after the medical
school plans were accepted.
He said he felt the complex would be
short 400 to 500 parking spaces when the
medical school is im operation.
C o m m i s s i o n e r of Public Safety
George D'Artois also said "it is obvious
there is not enough parking."
Initially the mayor discounted the
problem and said existing parking lots
are not being used to the fullest. Queried
about where additional people could
park, he said, "Maybe they'll ride public
transportation."
It was only after he was pressed on
the issue and confronted with actual
findings on the situation that ne provided
the assurance that action is being taken
to obtain the parking. He said he has
talked to everybody concerned; that
local l e g i s l a t o r s are aware of the
problem and that a bill is being prepared
to make state buildings come under city
codes in the future.
The parking situation Is no laughing
matter to officials of three business
concerns at the corner of Linwood and
Kings Highway, across from the medical
center.
Ed Hall, manager of Spartan's, which
owns and is responsible for the parking
lot, looked out the window Thursday
morning and estimated there were 350
cars in the parking lot which belonged to
Confederate officials or visitors.
"The parking lot is crowded," he said,
"and look, we have only about 20
employes and 20 customers in here."
"When we projected our needs, we
provided for our own parking, but we
didn't anticipate our neighbors parking
on our lot without paying," he added.
Hall said at one point a part of the lot
was so congested, that cars couldn't pull
in the driveway.
POLICEMAN HIRED
He said he had put out pamphlets
telling Confederate people that they must
park elsewhere. The condition improved
when he hired a policeman to patrol the
lot, but this was costly, he said.
Hall said he is toying with the idea of
having cars towed away and has already
had contact with a company that will
provide this service for him. But he said
improvement costs about $30 to $40 each
person whose car is pulled off the lot and
he hates to resort to this.
Clovis Burch, Medic Pharmacy of-ficial
and Ken Romero, district manager
of Weingarten's also expressed concern
over the situation.
Burch said that business people don't
want to offend the people who park 10 to
15 minutes on the lot, but worry over
those who leave their cars continuously
for eight hours,.
"We pay dearly for parking and then
our customers are denied access to it,"
he said.
Burch said some of the cars had even
blocked fire lanes. He said he had asked
the city for help in this matter. "They
suggested we put up signs,"' he said.
As much as the inconvenience. Burch
said he is "alarmed anri appalled at the
attitude of the Confederate employes
"who seem to think that, we owe them a
parking space because they are Civil
Service employes."
Visitor parking is not as serious as
the employe parking, Burch said.
Romero said the parking situation has
affected the business of Weingarten's at
that location considerably.
It is an inconvenience to our custo-mers,"
he added. "We are very con-cerned.
We have done just about every-thing
to stop it."
Romeco said he has even suggested
that the parking lot become a pay
parking operation. He also pointed out
that none of the b u s i n e s s e s really
objected to parking around the perimeter
of the area, but are concerned about
people "who park for eight hours and
block our front door."
COMMERCIAL LOTS
Several commercial lots have grown
up around the area. One small lot is
controlled with gates and parking is 25
cents, one service station charges 40
cents to park, and another — operating
out of a vacant service station — gives
special rates to hospital employes.
Burleson said that he had banned
parking on both sides of Woodlawn, a
block from Confederate, because emer-gency
vehicles couldn't get through. Cars
with Confederate stickers were spotted
Thursday on nearby streets down one
side of Glen Oak and up Jennings to
McWillie and down McWillie. The one
public parking lot provided by Confeder-ate
was jammed with cars even in the
i aisles, so that correctly parked automo-
[ biles could not, get out.
An additional problem at Confederate
and i elated to the construction is double
parking on Kings Highway in front of the
I hospital and a half-block away from the
busy Linwood intersection.