SPRINGFIELD _NIU has devised a plan to add as many as 1,200 parking spaces by using bond revenue as the source of payment for purchase and construction costs.

NIU President John LaTourette asked the Board of Regents for concept approval Thursday during the Facilities and Finance Committee meeting. The matter will come before the full board today.

Jim Harder, vice president for business and operations, said NIU would use parts of the $10 million revenue bond to buy additional land for parking or expand existing lots. Bond revenue also would take care of costs to pay for turning purchased land into a lot.

The university used a similar plan when it purchased land from the Wesley Foundation in September.

Harder said the bond revenue will be paid back through the sticker fees and fines that have been used to maintain present lots.

Those fees will have to continue paying for ticket officers and those working in the Parking Division, he said.

Eddie Williams, vice president for finance and planning, said this proposal means sticker fees would increase. Harder would not say how much an increase it would be, but Williams said it would not be expensive.

Willians said the reason for this proposal is that bond revenue is the only source of funds available.

“Accounting-wise, we need a separate auxilliary enterprise set up,” he said. “This sets up a proper accounting entity.”

arder said, “It is simply not possible to acquire land with regular (parking) fees. Our ultimate goal is to try to develop an additional 1,200 parking spaces. In order to do that, we may have to acquire land.”

LaTourette said, “This is simply a parking entity that would relate funds. User (parking) fees would be sufficient to cover all costs. This would make it clear that student (bond revenue) fees would not necessarily go up for the proposal.”

NIU Student Regent Nick Valadez said, “As far as I can see, it (the proposal) will address the problem. But the question is how the new space will be allocated—to see whether the policy is fair to everyone. We’ve already got assurances that the new parking facilities will not have to come out of student fees.”

The president cited the issuing of more than 10,000 permits this fall when less than 5,600 spaces are available as one of the main reasons for the proposal.

This translates into about 1.8 permits for every available space. LaTourette said adding 1,200 spaces would reduce the ratio to about 1.5.

A university report to the Regents states “Parking professionals recommend a permit-to-space ratio of 1.3 to 1.5.”

The estimated cost for the additional parking spaces is $2.5 million, the report states. But Harder said this figure is not definite. NIU will present each purchase or expansion individually to the Regents, he said. He also said the university might not even end up with 1,200 spaces.

“We’re not going to charge head-on to get 1,200 without regard to what the need will be,” he said.

The report states this project is supposed to be completed by 1990. Regents Chairman Carol Burns said this concept proposal does not contain the $2.5 million.

As LaTourette said when NIU began plans for the parking lot by the Wesley Foundation, Harder nixed the idea of a multi-level structure being built instead of several one-level lots. Construction costs for a regular lot are between $1,500-$2,000 per space. Multi-level structures cost about $6,000 per space, he said.

Other associated costs, such as snow removal, make a multi-level structure less desirable, Harder said.

“Admittedly, it (multi-level) sounds like a good plan,” he said.