By Ryanne Higley
The university village, a student housing plan, was revamped on Thursday, May 4, after the meeting the night before at Joanquin Elementary.
SCAMP is a student housing plan for the south of campus that will provide a more economical use of land. It will allow a living space for students that is aimed to meet their needs.
Marcy McInelly, the architect on the SCAMP consultant team, said Thursday’s meeting is for planning and for the team to draw up a final plan using input from Wednesday night’s SCAMP Workshop. The public is invited to this meeting for more input on the drawings in progress now.
Ted Knowlton, consultant for SCAMP, said that the purpose of this meeting is to spur discussion on what has happened with SCAMP so far. The consultant team has made three different ideas for SCAMP: BYU Steps, Campus Life and Barbell. Each idea focuses on different living concepts.
Knowlton said that these are basic ideas and wants the public’s opinion on each of them so they can make a plan that is agreeable for everyone.
“The idea is to build an area that will provide housing and small scale shopping to meet the needs of the students that are workable and close for student interaction.” Knowlton said.
He also said that park blocks and tree streets would make it fun to walk through because people like pretty, sociable areas.
D.B. Long, a homeowner in Provo, said SCAMP is microeconomics and is forcing something that will already help itself later on. He said that there is already enough housing for students and that 3 percent to 9 percent of much of BYU housing is vacant. Scamp is “trying to segregate students from the community,” Long said.
“I think it’s interesting the timing they chose for the meeting to take place is when a majority of the students have gone home,” Long said.
According to Kevin Callahan, the assistant director of community development at BYU has told Long that housing for 4,000 to 5,000 students is needed.
“There is no need for more housing, only a need for more parking and there is plenty of vacancies in our complexes,” said landlords of two major complexes.
Fergonese, the planning consultant, said that the parking plan at this time is a resident permit parking program, which will only allow residents to park on the streets with a permit. Other parking may be at the stadium with a shuttle to and from campus.
Kevin Callahan said, “The campus and its faculty need to be involved in the parking situation of students.” He said a trip reduction program, which is carpooling, will help parking problems.
Callahan said that the program will cost people who drive by themselves but pay those who carpool.
Don Ormsby, a landlord from south campus, wants to know why SCAMP can not use tax increment financing for parking. He says it’s a good option to take the tax increment of the new development and put it into parking instead of the general funds of the city.
“I think SCAMP will improve everyone’s situation in the community and help my land use as a land owner,” Ormsby said.
He said he does not understand how landlords cannot keep living conditions suitable for students. He believes in keeping housing habitable for living.
“Provo’s biggest problem is landlords who believe in collecting checks and not putting it back into the housing complex,” Ormsby said.
