State Lets PCC Raise Parking Fee : Commuters: The college is expected to at least double the $20 per semester charge to pay for a much-needed multistory garage.

At Pasadena City College, finding a parking place often provides a test equal to the rigors of some final examinations.

School officials paint a bleak picture for commuters: 25,000 students and employees scrambling to squeeze their cars into the school’s 2,500 on-campus parking spaces. They say some students have complained that the parking shortage has forced them to drop classes. Others are forced to park illegally, jamming the surrounding city streets.

“It’s the largest single drawback to going to school at Pasadena (City) College,” said Richard Green, a member of the college board of trustees.

But last week, Gov. George Deukmejian signed a bill that supporters view as the first step in relieving campus parking headaches. The new law grants the college special authority to raise parking fees above the state’s current limit of $40 per semester. The law stipulates that this additional money will be used for a proposed multistory garage on campus that could contain as many as 1,500 parking spaces.

The college charges students $20 a semester for a parking sticker. Under the new law, a $20-per-semester cap on the parking sticker will be maintained for students receiving financial aid.

Green said it is likely that trustees will soon will raise the parking fees to at least $40 a semester.

The measure was carried in the Legislature by Assemblyman Pat Nolan (R-Glendale), whose district includes Pasadena.

In explaining the need for the law, Nolan said, “It has become impossible for the college to provide much-needed parking spaces at the price allowed under current law.” The new law, he said, will give the school “the flexibility to deal with this problem.”

“The price of land for the campus is so high, parking is at a premium,” Nolan said. “It’s causing tremendous dislocation for the students in the form of parking tickets, and for the community in the form of clogged streets.”

According to a Senate analysis of the Nolan bill, the college has one of the state’s highest rates of enrollment per available campus parking. At the same time, the report found that the cost of land around the campus is among the highest for a community college district in the state.

Phil Mullendore, college director of police and safety services, said campus parking woes have been mounting for a decade. The college attempted to win passage of a similar bill in the early 1980s, but the measure stalled, he said.

Since then, the campus’ parking problems have worsened, he said.

“I get calls into this office from people who have dropped classes because they can’t find a place to park,” Mullendore said. Moreover, parents have told him that after finally persuading a child to attend college, it is discouraging to see them drop classes because of the parking shortage.

To lessen the problem, the college has operated shuttle buses from downtown Pasadena parking lots.

“It has reached the point where we’re going to have to exclude certain employees from parking on campus,” Mullendore said.

Also, the college has changed some class hours to the afternoon and established weekend courses “to get people out of the morning crunch,” Mullendore said.