Quick Take
UC Santa Cruz students and employees are disappointed by a proposal to raise parking permit fees by 7% to 10% annually starting this summer, a move that would nearly double some permit costs over the next decade amid ongoing budget deficits and infrastructure needs. Critics say the increases will further strain workers and students already grappling with high housing costs, while university officials argue the hikes are necessary to cover debt, maintenance and transportation projects.
UC Santa Cruz students and employees say a proposal to implement annual parking permit rate increases by 7% to 10% starting this summer is frustrating, especially when affordability is top of mind for people living in the least affordable rental market in the country.
Under the proposal, a student currently paying $378.72 per academic year for the mid-priced “R” permit would pay 7% more each year for five years starting this July, followed by five more annual increases of 6%, and 5% annual increases each July thereafter. By 2036, the cost of the permit will have almost doubled to $710.83.
The university announced the increases — the first in eight years — over the weekend, citing the school’s budget deficit and needed infrastructure enhancements to sidewalks, new parking and bike paths. Students and employees on campus on Monday told Lookout that complaints about parking increases were the starting point of many of their conversations with classmates and instructors.
Cameron Hughes, a doctoral candidate in sociology, said parking fees are already too expensive and are just another rising cost that’s outpacing workers’ salaries.
“The fee to buy a parking pass is just atrociously expensive for someone who works here at the university,” he said. “I would be paying back a significant part of my salary as a graduate student instructor.”
Hughes commutes to campus from his home in Oakland because housing is cheaper there. He pays for daily parking rather than for an annual permit because he can’t justify the cost with the number of days he’s on campus, with his $42,000 salary as a graduate student instructor.
UCSC’s Transportation and Parking Services, known as TAPS, oversees the school’s parking lots and programs. It’s a self-supporting division, meaning that it’s funded only through user fees and receives no state funding or tuition revenues. The funds go toward parking services as well as lot construction, maintenance and operations.
Campus officials said that because of the university’s structural budget deficit, they’re shifting some costs and responsibilities to TAPS from the central budget and other divisions. For example, the central administration previously paid debt service for the Core West parking garage from 2021 to 2025 so the university could lower permit rates by 15% during the pandemic. Going forward, TAPS has a balance of $4.5 million to pay for the next six years, according to university officials.
The university said TAPS also needs to pay for projects such as new parking, sidewalks and bike paths.
Officials argue that these increases put the university more in line with fees at other University of California campuses: “UCSC’s rates remain significantly below the average across permit types.” For example, UCSC’s student parking permit R is $33 cheaper than the average of all the other UC campuses.
UCSC increased parking fees for students, faculty and drivers not affiliated with the university. The daily parking fee increase for non-affiliates went into effect Dec. 31 and similarly is increasing first by 10%, then 6% and 5%.
An employee paying the current fee of $765.12 for permit A will first see 10% increases annually for five years followed by five more annual increases of 6% and 5% annual increases each July thereafter. In 10 years, the permit cost will have more than doubled to $1649.01.
UCSC sociology professor Steve McKay said Monday that he’d been hearing from graduate students and staff, who are already stretched thin, that the permits were already too expensive.
“Housing is so expensive — people are driving from farther away,” he said. “And then to have increases on parking, it’s just tough.”
McKay said it felt as though the parking fee increase was the first point of conversation for most people on campus on Monday.
“For people that are just barely getting by, it’s a bigger bite out of their budget,” he said.
UCSC is projecting an estimated $80 million deficit this fiscal year, its sixth deficit of the past seven years. Campus leaders set a goal to save $170 million in spending annually by the 2027-28 fiscal year. In the fall, officials said they had so far cut costs by about $70 million.
Several people Lookout spoke with on campus Monday complained about the increased permit cost, but declined to provide their names on the record for fear of retaliation by administrators or because they were told that they couldn’t talk to the press. “The climate is really bad right now,” one said.
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