Changes are coming to the Welcome Center Garages that will make parking easier and more flexible.

What's Changing?

Starting June 9, there will no longer be separate parking areas for students, faculty and staff in the Welcome Center Garages. Instead:

• All valid Welcome Center Garage permit holders, regardless of status, will have access to both garages.
• The garages will now be referred to as follows:
  • Welcome Center Student Garage will be Welcome Center South Garage
  • Welcome Center Garage (Faculty/Staff) will be Welcome Center North Garage
• The first floor of the North Garage will not allow overnight parking between the hours of 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. Vehicles left in this location overnight will be subject to citation and towing on the first offense.
• Over the summer (exact date is still to be determined) the first floor of the South Garage will be restricted to faculty-staff who upgrade to a Gated Premium parking permit. (Until that happens, faculty-staff are allowed to park there with their Welcome Center Garage permit but should avoid parking in the reserved spaces.)

Why is This Happening?

This update will help us make more efficient use of garage space, just as we’ve done successfully in the East, Elgin, Gateway, and Stadium garages. This means there will be more parking permits available for students, faculty and staff in these garages, and shorter waitlists.

Garage Access Points

Permit holders will be able to use the following entrances starting June 9:

1. The MLK Boulevard entrance to North Garage
2. The Cougar Village Drive entrance to the North Garage
3. The connector road entrance to the South Garage

Option for Faculty and Staff

Faculty and staff may choose to upgrade to a Welcome Center Garage Premium Permit, which will allow you to park on the first floor of the South Garage via the entrance behind the garage (facing Moody Towers).

Those who are interested in this permit should log in to their myParking account through AccessUH and join the "Welcome Center Garage Premium" waitlist. Once you do that, we will begin processing the changes and will notify you when your permit has been upgraded.

To compare the difference in prices between the garage permit and the garage gated premium permit, visit the faculty-staff permits page.

Note: This permit is not available to students.

Visitor Parking Changes

Visitor parking will move to the roof level of the Welcome Center North Garage. This will be pay-by-phone only.

Construction and Signage

Over the summer, permit holders will notice work in progress throughout both garages. This includes relocating gate equipment, rearranging barriers, and installing new signage. In addition, new parking gates will be installed, as well as license plate readers that will replace the toll tag readers as a no-hands option for entering and exiting.

Temporary signs will be in place to guide permit holders during this transition.

We’re truly excited about these updates and believe they’ll make parking more accessible, efficient, and user-friendly for everyone.