PORT ANGELES — Peninsula College wants to go green on every portion of the campus — even the parking lot.
The parking lot at the main Port Angeles campus was selected as part of the Sustainable Sites Initiative, which is a project to test the national rating system for green landscape design, construction and maintenance.
The $1.14 million project is paid for as a part of the state-funded $36 million Maier Hall.
The lot was designed by the same architectural firm as the building, Schacht Aslani.
Walter Schacht, principal architect, worked with the college to design the lot, which will incorporate landscaping along with a new layout for more efficient traffic flow.
The 4.2-acre lot will lose about 60 parking spots but will include special parking areas for vanpools, carpools and motorcycles, said President Tom Keegan.
Runoff control
The lot will incorporate trees to reduce heat and rain gardens and other plants to stop and filter water runoff.
“With the Peninsula College project, we’ll be treating on site 100 percent of the water that used to flow directly — and untreated — into the Strait of Juan de Fuca,” Schacht said.
In addition to function, he said, is the aesthetic quality.
“Aesthetically, surface lots should look like landscaped areas with some space for parking within them,” he said.
“Functionally, these projects should address storm water runoff quality and quantity issues as well as the heat-island effect often associated with parking surfaces,” Schacht said.
Losing 60 spaces
The anticipated loss of about 60 parking spaces “is due to additional space being used to improve traffic flow and new landscape islands,” Keegan said.
The lot will have a new front entry and turnaround, and it will be safer, he said.
The project will begin within the next week or two and should be completed by Sept. 17 — in time for the start of fall classes, Keegan said.
Because summer enrollment is much lower than during the fall or spring, Keegan said the college doesn’t anticipate problems during construction.
“The contractor will complete half of the lot at a time, allowing for half, or about 275 to 300 spaces, during each phase of the construction,” he said.
So “we don’t expect this to be an issue,” Keegan said, but “just in case, the Community Playhouse Theatre across the street has been very gracious in providing overflow parking if the need arises.”
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
