APUS Finds a Creative Method for Dealing with Parking Difficulties in Historic Downtown Charles Town, West Virginia
by Elizabeth Gray
In 2003 when American Public University System (APUS) moved to Charles Town, West Virginia from its original home of Manassas, Virginia (where the university system continues to maintain its student services and marketing offices), the system’s leadership was cognizant of the historic nature of their new home. As the institution has grown in student population and added additional employees, adequate parking for employees commuting to work became an ongoing problem. APUS currently owns eight structures in the downtown area of the city and leases six additional buildings and space in three others. Several of these buildings do not have their own parking lots and this has forced employees to contend with other downtown businesses and residences for parking on the street.
In an attempt to alleviate this problem, APUS began exploring means to augment the parking in the historic district. As a charter signatory to the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), the university system’s leadership was also especially aware of the environmental impact of any construction. With this in mind, the organization recently underwent a project to install four new parking lots for employee use. The first one was completed in 2008 and the latest three have been recently completed in late 2009. In total, approximately 20,000 square feet of land was used to create four parking lots, providing an additional 70 much-needed off-street spaces to APUS employees.
APUS’ leadership realized that using asphalt to pave lots for employee parking was not an environmentally sound method since crude oil is a key ingredient in asphalt and the sealants, caulks, and coatings required when using such methods are sources of smog-forming emissions of volatile organic compounds. Asphalt lots were not aesthetically pleasing and contributed to runoff in an area that drains into the Chesapeake Bay watershed. As an alternative, the university system decided to use a porous paver system for the four parking lots. The paver system prevents storm water run-off by providing an 18-inch thick layer of compacted stone beneath the pavers. This allows rainwater and snowmelt to pass through the gaps around the individual pavers where it can be captured in the stones below and is slowly returned to the soil underneath. Storm water can pick up debris, chemicals, dirt, and other pollutants and flow into storm sewer systems or directly into lakes, streams, rivers, or wetland areas. Anything that enters the storm sewer systems is discharged, untreated, into local bodies of water that citizens use for swimming, fishing, and even as sources of drinking water.
In some cases, trees were able to be retained and worked around in the forming of the pavers since they are placed in a patterned fashion to create the larger area. While the saving of these trees may have meant the loss of one or two parking spaces, APUS’ leadership felt that it was a worthwhile trade off. The additional spaces provided to APUS employees mean that fewer employees are utilizing metered parking on the streets of downtown Charles Town. Overall, the APUS project proved to be a great success for not only the employees of the university system but also created a benefit for APUS’ neighbors and the environment.
Tags: American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, American Public University System, APUS Academic Center, Charles Town, Green Parking Lot, Porous Pavers
