A recent increase of Quinnipiac University students parking in the Sleeping Giant State Park parking lot on Mount Carmel Avenue comes amid a lack of spots at the university.
Park-goers and hikers are upset because they are not able to park in the lot since it is full of students,officials who work at Sleeping Giant said.
The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said that the park had to be closed on Sunday, Oct. 8 because the parking lot was full.
Parking is free for in-state residents because they pay with a parking passport, but for out-of-state residents there is a $15 fee.
Giancarlo Lomanto, a park patrolman at Sleeping Giant said that the parking is meant for patrons that come to hike and it’s not a place where students are supposed to park.
“We do have people that come and hike and they kind of lose out on the opportunity to park here,” Lomanto said. “So, we try to keep it available to them as much as possible.”
Officials at Sleeping Giant have been trying to stop students from parking in the lot by putting up signs and barricades.
“It helped a little bit, (but) it didn’t really solve the entire issue,” Lomanto said.
A peak time for students to park in the lot is around 9 to 11 a.m. and after 12 p.m. it peaks again, said Andrew Rule, a seasonal maintainer.
“(Hikers) complain about it,” Lomanto said. “But it doesn’t seem to bother them a whole lot, I guess. They can usually find other parking spots but because they see students walk over to Quinnipiac they know they are not using it for hiking.”
Jill Scheibenpflug, the park supervisor, also said that hikers have been complaining because they have a passport but can’t park because of all the out-of-state students that park in the lot. So, she proposed a solution to try to relieve some of the parking congestion.
“My thing is, if the school isn’t going to solve the problem and I can’t prevent (students) from parking here,” Scheibenpflug said. “Why don’t I just direct them to the back of the park? If you want to come in and park way in the back, no one is going to say anything because all the hikers park in the main lot.”
Scheibenpflug said that many students are apologetic when they park in the lot but continue to blame the school.
The park supervisor also brought up the fact that the university ripped up 145 parking spots to put tennis courts in.
“I watched them do it,” Scheibenpflug said. “We could sit here and blame the students but the school needs to solve the problem in my opinion.”
One reply on “An increase of Quinnipiac students parking in Sleeping Giant’s parking lot frustrates staff and hikers”
A very simple solution for the parking problem is this, resident stickers that are free to state residents, a valid CT. car registration is proof that you live here. Then a 50.00 ticket for out of state Parker’s for the first offense then have the cars towed. These students will complain to their parents who will in turn complain to QU. Then perhaps the school will realize that students being able to park on school grounds is at least as important as tennis courts.