Frederiksen Court residents have been forced to park across the street when visitor parking overflows into their lots, said members of the Frederiksen Court Community Council. More than 30 students expressed their concerns to the council Monday.

Visitors are taking spots residents are paying for, forcing residents across the road into the Pammel Grocery store parking lot, said Mary Beth Golemo, Frederiksen Court programming coordinator and faculty adviser to the council.

Golemo said the problems began last fall, because that was the first time all 23 buildings at Frederiksen were up and running. Since then, the problem has grown increasingly worse, Golemo said.

Frederiksen allots 3.7 parking spaces for each apartment. Golemo said three years ago, the space seemed adequate because not every resident brings a car.

Linda Shaw, council president, said the severity of the parking situation varies from lot to lot.

An e-mail survey was sent out in late November asking Frederiksen residents to fill out their preferences for parking solutions, Shaw said.

There were four parking options offered to residents and an option allowing students to write in a suggestion, she said.

The first option was to allow visitor parking in Frederiksen lots on the weekends only and have visitors park in the overflow lots located across Stange Road and 13th Street during the weekdays.

The second option was to not change the parking policies.

The third option was to eliminate visitor parking at Frederiksen Court, and the fourth option stated all visitors would still be able to park at Frederiksen, but for shorter periods of time during the day.

Golemo said 316 residents responded to the survey.

Houghton and Golemo read each and every comment provided by Frederiksen residents, she said.

The proposed policy is for visitor parking to run Fridays at 3:30 p.m. until Sundays at 5 p.m., Shaw said. The visitors would then be able to move into the overflow parking lots after 5 p.m. Sundays, she said.

Capt. Doug Houghton, manager of the Department of Public Safety Parking Division, addressed student concern about adequate lighting available in the lot near the Pammel Grocery store. He told residents the paved lot has appropriate lighting and there is a plan to extend the paved lot.

Students also questioned how the Department of Public Safety was going to enforce the new policy.

“Realistically, there are times when [DPS] is not out writing tickets,” Houghton said. Those times may be when there is a large event on campus, he said.

DPS has allowed students to get away with parking infractions in parking lots numbered in the 50s because the parking conditions there are so bad, Houghton said.

Golemo said by solving visitor parking problems, the problems in the 50s lots will also be solved.

The most valid complaints against DPS are that they are not universal in enforcement, Houghton said.

Students in attendance voiced other solutions to the parking problem.

One suggestion was to allow visitors a weekend pass that they could get at the Frederiksen Court office.