By Joni Renick
The long awaited public hearing on the South Campus Area Master Plan came to the Provo City Council on Dec. 18.
Tensions ran high at times during the meeting while students, members of the planning commission, land owners and Provo residents expressed their viewpoints.
While many students came to the meeting, many expressed their frustration with the date of the meeting, which fell in the middle of BYU finals week.
The meeting started at 7 p.m., but by 8 p.m., some students were already leaving.
Forrest Humble, 23, a senior in Mechanical Engineering from Mesa, Ariz., said he came to the Council meeting because he wanted to hear the SCAMP debate, but he couldn''t stay all night.
'I''ve got nine hours of finals tomorrow,' he said.
Dennis Poulsen, chair of the Council said he had heard comments from students about the date. He said many felt waylaid because the Council brought SCAMP to a public hearing during the week of finals.
Mary Palmer, a student at BYU, said she felt the council did not like students. She said she feels students are treated as though they don''t belong in Provo.
Kyle Feats, another student at BYU echoed that sentiment. He said there is perception at BYU that the Council is anti-student.
Poulsen denied the idea.
'We love BYU students,' Poulsen said.
Richard Secrist, head of the Planning Commission, first presented the plan for SCAMP to the audience.
Secrist said SCAMP is intended to make the closest area south of campus into a high-density student village. Right now, many students who do not live directly south of campus are living in illegal apartments.
This means students are living in areas zoned for single-family use, not for high-density student use. Many times students live in these areas without knowledge of their illegality.
Secrist said SCAMP would take care of that problem by providing housing for more students close to campus.
The boundaries of SCAMP are from University Ave. to 900 E. and from the southern edge of BYU campus to 500 N.
One of the main problems students and others had with SCAMP is the reduced parking that would be available within the project.
Secrist said little parking would be available on site of students'' apartment buildings. Many students would have to park on the street or in a satellite parking facility.
Janeal Thornock, BYUSA''s Legislative Assistant said that the parking issues within SCAMP override all of the positive amenities within the area.
Jarom Wilde, a member of the Provo City Taskforce, said in order for SCAMP to work 3.15 parking spaces per apartment would be needed - currently only 1.5 would be provided in SCAMP.
'You are trying to change the behavior of students to fit SCAMP rather than changing SCAMP to fit students,' Wilde said.
He cited incidents where Council member said students would be 're-educated' about bringing cars to BYU.
Brent Turley, a member of the original SCAMP committee for the city said SCAMP lowers parking requirements too much.
Palmer said the experiment of a student village has happened twice in Chicago and both times it has failed. Around the University of Chicago, the student village built there 60 years ago has turned into a ghetto.
She said that same thing could happen in Provo.
However, with this reduced parking the city would hope to discourage students from bringing their cars to college.
SCAMP is planned to be pedestrian oriented. Many of the north-south streets in the area would be closed in order to make way for green open space. Traffic would be discouraged in the area.
The only exception is 700 N., that road would be widened to four lanes, have on-street parking and would become the main street in the district.
A parking permit program would be implemented in the area. Residents could acquire parking permits allowing them to park on the streets within SCAMP, commuter students would be directed to park elsewhere.
Visitors would be given a two-hour parking limit within the SCAMP boundaries.
Corey Smith, a property owner in the South Joaquin area was concerned both with property values and safety. She said as a woman, she would not feel safe parking in a dark parking garage late at night and then walking five blocks to her apartment.
She pointed out to the Council that no safety measures for women have yet been taken into account in SCAMP discussions.
Many students and private citizens supported the idea of SCAMP. Many said that anything to help students would be welcome, but most had reservations about this particular plan.
Julie Durrant, a Provo resident and landowner said the goals of SCAMP contradict themselves. SCAMP seeks to provide high living standards while moderating rent. She said these two goals could not be met. Between the escalating land values and new housing, rent prices would only go up for students.
Kyle Feats, a student at BYU echoed this sentiment. He said already his rent prices go up every year. He feels they would continue to go up if SCAMP was implemented.
The population explosion projected for Utah Valley State College was also a concern at the meeting.
Currently the amount of BYU approved housing is adequate for all students who attend BYU. But because so many BYU approved housing spots are taken by UVSC students and non-students who want to live in approved housing, it creates the crunch.
With UVSC planning to increase its enrollment by 5,000 to 10,000 students each year, SCAMP would not be able to house all the students who want to live in Provo. This too would cause rent to go up, Durrant said.
Many other problems were brought up with SCAMP that will be discussed at a future meeting as the issue has been continued to the Jan. 22 Council meeting.
Council members encouraged students to voice their opinions before the next SCAMP discussion. The Council can be reached through email at provo.council1@state.ut.us.