The new Conlee lot opened yesterday, the day before regular semester classes end. Located at the north of the Central parking lot, it provides 344 new general access parking spaces.
"I'm excited about the opening of Conlee lot," said the manager of parking services Sandra Barksdale. "The lot will add to north campus parking and provide relief to the congestion of the Central lot."
However, there is skepticism among some University of Memphis students about the effectiveness and timeliness of the new lot.
Several students said they are glad the spaces are open, but think blocking off the exit is going to cause some major problems.
"I'm really beefed they didn't keep the exit open. That was a bad idea," said junior theater major Nathaniel Davis. "It causes a cluster."
He said the parking places are a needed addition and he is happy everything is fixed because for a long time he has been parking illegally.
He said he has put his car in any place that is bad to park, but he said he has never gotten a ticket.
Davis has parked in illegal spaces because the Central lot, which he said is the main lot, has always been full.
Davis is not the only one to park where he shouldn't on Central.Antwan Montgomery, a junior physical therapy major, said he has seen many accidents nearly occur because of cars parked along the fence closest to the Holiday Inn.
The new parking lot, built at a cost of approximately $800,000, was needed, but it is not enough Montgomery said.
He said more people will park there and people will still park on the streets.
Like Davis, Montgomery said keeping the exit to Poplar blocked off will cause congestion.
Some U of M students share another concern about the lot.
"We got a million dollar fountain before we got a place to park," said commercial music senior Chris Weary.
He added that he thinks the length of time it took to build the parking lot was ridiculous.
But since we only have half the parking lots we will benefit from it, he said.
"It's better than parking on the grass," Weary said. "But hopefully I won't have to use it because it's so far."
Other students, like Sarah Mueller, aren't worried at all about the new lot because they chose more secure parking spots.
Mueller, a graduate in music performance, bought a spot in a priority lot to ensure she won't have to fight for a spot in general access. She said it doesn't bother her at all that the lot took so long to get there.
"Well, if it took that long to get ready," she said. "it took that long to get ready."
Other students who plan to risk finding a place in the general access lots will have to wait until after Christmas break to see how good or bad parking will be.
Davis said he would wait to see the parking situation.
"I guess we won't really be sure until next semester," he said.
