By Joni Renick
After years of anticipation and planning, the South Campus Area Master Plan is finally coming to the Provo City Council agenda.
Along with SCAMP, the less publicized but no less important South Joaquin proposal will also come before the board Tuesday, Dec. 18.
A public hearing on both proposals will be held that night, the meeting starts at 7 p.m.
Forrest Humble, a Senior majoring in Mechanical Engineering said he plans on being at the meeting Tuesday night, but he said it will be hard because he has three finals scheduled for Wednesday.
Humble said he is somewhat annoyed that the council is holding this debate during finals week at BYU.
Janeal Thornock, BYUSA'' s Legislative Assistant said the date of the public hearing is inconsiderate to students, but she doesn''t think the council meant to be inconsiderate by their choice of a date.
Thornock said the hearing is supposed to be public, however the public that is most concerned with this hearing is going to be tied up in finals.
Humble said he is not completely opposed to the idea of SCAMP, but he opposes some of the proposal as it now stands.
He believes that the parking requirements for the area should be upped. Humble said he can''t believe the city council would have the audacity to say students should not have a car.
'Students have just as much a right to own and operate a car as any other citizen,' Humble said.
Provo City spokesman Michael Mower said that Mayor Lewis Billings does not support any plan that would prohibit students from having cars in Provo.
Mower said parking would be provided for students who live in the area, but students who currently park in the area who do not live there would be directed to park elsewhere.
Humble also does not have a problem with high-density housing, but he does have problem with students being treated as sub-standard citizens.
Students should be given the same level of comfort in this student village as any other student would be given, and that includes a place to park their cars, Humble said.
He said he feels that because students are transient and don''t vote in large numbers the Council doesn''t care as much about their needs even though students bring in a great deal of money for the city of Provo.
Many students don''t feel the need to be involved in the public hearing about SCAMP because the actual reality of the project won''t happen for another 10 years.
'Students should care about SCAMP because aspects that will help develop SCAMP are going to start happening now, like zoning changes and the South Joaquin plan,' Thornock said.
'It is important for students first to get informed, then to get involved,' Mower, said.
Mower said the city has encouraged student involvement from the start, but the city has found it to be challenging because of the high rate of student turnover.
If students want to learn more they can visit the city web page at www.provo.org or they can attend the meeting Tuesday night.
Brent Turley, a graduate student in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Salt Lake City said, he believes students should be involved with the SCAMP discussion because they have a civic duty to do so.
Turley said as a member of the church it is a student''s duty to be involved in what is happening in their community. He also said students should think of their involvement now as a service to future generations who will come to BYU.
The foundation for SCAMP needs to be set now, Turley said.
He said that developments like this are being planned across the country as a solution for urban sprawl. This is happening not only in student-populated areas, but in areas populated by average citizens.
Turley believes that it is better for students to learn about projects like SCAMP here in Provo than at some time in the future.
Turley likes SCAMP overall because it provides a lot of housing close to campus, but he agrees with Humble on the parking issue. He believes that more parking should be planned in the development.
SCAMP, if passed, will provide a good off-campus atmosphere for students to both live and hang out at, Turley said.
Mower said that SCAMP will allow many more students to live closer to the BYU campus.
In a letter to the editor printed in July of 2000 when SCAMP was first proposed, Hugh Nibley along with other Provo residents expressed their feelings about SCAMP.
'Evidently the city wants to create an area to contain students, something analogous to a wild animal park,' the letter said.
The addition of shopping and other amenities within the city would also prevent students from 'running free' throughout the city, according to the letter.
The letter also said that individual ownership of apartments in the area would be impossible, developers and investors would control the area.
It continued, higher rents with fewer options would be the result of such a venture. Students in Irvine, CA where the Irvine Company controls basically all the housing, students pay $1200-1400 per month for an apartment.