The Shorthorn - Arlington City Council’s approval for College Park brings city, UTA closer

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Arlington City Council’s approval for College Park brings city, UTA closer

Written by The Shorthorn editorial board

Thursday, 28 January 2010 04:07 PM

Thank you, Arlington.

The Arlington City Council unanimously voted Tuesday to further the city’s partnership with the university’s College Park project.

The city and university will split the $36 million cost of the parking garage portion of College Park. College Park is the mixed-used project that includes a parking garage, a wrap-around residence hall space and a office/retail space. It will also include a satellite campus police station.

The unanimous support from the city council on this project exemplifies the city’s solidarity with the university to build the college town atmosphere needed to further develop the university and downtown Arlington.

University spokeswoman Kristin Sullivan said partnership is important because two public entities are working together to make the area more vibrant. She said this is the first partnership between the university and the city of this size.

Deputy City Manager Trey Yelverton, a university alumnus, spoke to the city council about what he hopes the partnership will do to help the university.

“We’ve talked before in our Champion Arlington meetings about what can the city do to help UT Arlington reach its aspirations,” said Yelverton in a previous Shorthorn article. “That is help them create a college town environment around their campus, to be strong for their researchers, their students and we believe this investment will go a long way toward supporting those efforts.”

The projects benefits can be immense.

The retail space in the multi-use center will provide jobs for both community members and students, and will provide a place for area residents to shop.

Its residence area will create more space for students who want to live on campus.

The center will also have a satellite police station, which will provide faster security response for the eastern edge of campus.

The biggest advantage to students will be parking. The new center will have 1,800 parking spaces built around the residence center, according to Sullivan.

College Park will be built in conjunction with and next to the special events center, which is a 6,500-seat venue for university basketball, volleyball, commencement ceremonies, convocation, concerts, and community events.

With the Levitt Pavilion, College Park and the special events center, UTA and the city are poised to create a new eastern perimeter for the university and add a new attraction for central and downtown Arlington.

-The Shorthorn editorial board consists of editor-in-cheif Mark Bauer, opinion editor Ali Amir Mustansir, news editor Dustin Dangli, design editor Marissa Hall and Scene editor Jason Boyd
Views: 834 | E-mail

Comments (1)

1 Written by Todd Lucas, on 02-04-2010 11:28
"The biggest advantage to students will be parking. The new center will have 1,800 parking spaces built around the residence center"

Maybe so, but they have YET to address the issue of where student parking areas that will be taken away during construction will be moved to in the interim period.

It's like the Toyota recalls...they did a recall on over 8 million cars without having a fix in place.

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Last Updated ( Thursday, 28 January 2010 04:20 PM )

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