Parking and Transportation Services is holding an open forum today to allow the university community to give their opinions on traffic and paid parking. The forum will be held from noon to 4 p.m. in the Sabino Room on the third floor of the Student Union Memorial Center.

PTS will incorporate input from students, faculty and staff to get a better idea of how to address traffic congestion on and around campus.

“”If someone has an issue, they should definitely give us a holler,”” said Bill Davidson, marketing specialist for PTS.

The recent closure of a large parking lot just south of campus has potentially aggravated students’ perpetual search for open spaces.

The Jan. 7 closure of Zone 1 lot 8109, directly east of the Student Recreation Center, 1400 E. Sixth St., has caused an increase in the number of permits issued for the 12 South of Sixth Street parking lots, more than 50 Zone 1 lots and seven garages.

Knowing as early as last summer that the lot would close for the expansion of the Rec Center, a project that broke ground in December, PTS issued 460 out of 490 permits for lot 8109 and undersold the neighboring South of Sixth Street lots by approximately 400 permits.

This was done because PTS expected the lot closure to push many students to request new permits for other lots, Davidson said.

“”When permits were given out, students were told upfront that they were only for the fall semester,”” Davidson said.

A letter was sent out after the lot closed, offering spring-semester passes to park in the South of Sixth Street lots, Zone 1 lots or the garages, he said.

“”I believe that everyone who was in there was able to get a spot somewhere else,”” he said. “”Most of the people stayed with South of Sixth (Street).””

There are 1,462 spaces in the South of Sixth Street lots combined, and 1,472 permits have been issued for them, Davidson said.

Despite the overselling, he insists there should be plenty of room.

“”In the South of Sixth (Street) and Zone 1 lots, people are not given permits based on the number of lots open,”” Davidson said. “”It’s an open parking situation. There will be spots, but it may take a bit of time to find them.””

Some students believe otherwise.

“”It’s almost impossible to get a spot unless it’s extremely late or early in the morning,”” said Mackenzie Minnella, a pre-physiology freshman who parks in a South of Sixth Street lot. “”They eliminated a good percentage of the parking.””

Kevin Korf, a biosystems engineering freshman, now parks in the South of Sixth Street lot behind the Rec Center.

“”It’s harder to find a spot in the new lot than in my old one,”” he said.

Davidson said he hasn’t received any complaints.

“”I think that everybody should be well accommodated,”” he said.