SDSU’s parking situation will remain difficult in 2012-13.

While the center of campus is ripped up for the expansion of The Union and new residence halls on the southeast side of campus, parking spaces near the center of campus will be limited but no more than usual.

Parking on The Union’s east side will be removed and visitor parking will be moved to the north portion of the west Union lot.

The initial plan was to have The Union east lot become a pay lot for all of 2011-12 but delays with equipment pushed the full start back until January. When construction started in April, the lot moved back to visitor and commuter designation before being closed for the summer in May. The 140 spaces lost will make a nominal difference, according to Parking and Traffic Committee member Derek Peterson.

“Overall, I don’t see much of a difference between this year and last and commuters won’t feel much of an impact,” Peterson said, citing that the campus has 1985 commuter parking spaces that will remain largely intact. The lots near Frost Arena and Briggs Library will stay the same.

Aside from a small lot on the corner of 8th street and 13th avenue, west of the Newman Catholic Center, residence hall parking will be located in the expanded reserved parking lot on the east side of campus. The lot south of Brown and Pierson Hall will be used for construction staging for the new residence halls being built nearby during the 2012-13 school year. The lot will return in Fall 2013, with slightly fewer spaces.

“In order to put the facilities up at the same time and stage them properly, this is what had to be done. But it’s a one year deal with the [Brown] lot returning in the fall of 2013,” Peterson said.

Students and staff have to make a little sacrifice for what will eventually become a better campus for the rest of their time at SDSU.

“We’re hamstrung by space,” said Tom Henley, program assistant for parking services. “[Students] don’t like it but neither does the staff.”

“We’ll have all of the parking in one spot and it will still be well lit, with the emergency boxes,” Peterson said.

Prices will be raised in 2012-13 by a slight margin, with one major caveat. Residents in what is called the “southeast quadrant” (Caldwell, Binnewies, Young, Pierson, Brown, Mathews, Abbott, Thorne and Spencer) will see their parking costs sliced in half because of living in the construction zone, from $122 for the school year down to $61. Residence hall parking on the northwest side of campus and for commuters will move from $120 in 2011-12 to $122 for the coming school year. Reserved parking spaces move from $240 to $245 in the new school year.

“The biggest change is that southeast residents will be primarily parking in the east lot. The parking is still there. It will just take a little adjustment and time to figure out a routine,” Peterson said.