Last bastion of free parking? Loyola Marymount to charge students

Colleges love to capture parking fees from their captive audiences — visitors pay $11 for the day at UCLA, $10 at USC. Since 2000, drivers to Loyola Marymount University have parked for free. That's about to change, but not without controversy. Starting this fall, visitors will be dinged up to $10 a day. The fee kicks in for students, faculty and staff after the new year. From the Argonaut:

The university plans to charge visitors for parking at the beginning of the 2012-13 academic year and LMU and Los Angeles city representatives think that may force even more students to park in adjacent neighborhoods, a situation that longtime residents say has been happening for years....

“We’re concerned that this will cause more student parking in residential areas,” said Nate Kaplan, Councilman Bill Rosendahl’s deputy for Westchester-Playa.

Currently, there is a moratorium on issuing permits for restricted parking districts citywide, and some of the more vocal homeowners have indicated that they would not be willing to pay for permits for visiting family members or friends to park.

Under an agreement forged between homeowners and university officials...LMU has agreed to contribute $24,000 to help offset the cost of permits of residents who are in favor of restricted parking.

An earlier story in the campus Loyolan.