Students say visitor parking at University Courtyards has become even more of a problem since the university’s Department of Transportation Services began patrolling the lots this year.

Capstone Management, which owns Courtyards and South Campus Commons, worked with a private towing company before this semester. After several visitors and residents complained about needing to leave campus to retrieve their cars, DOTS Director David Allen agreed his department would take over parking enforcement, he said.

The university significantly cut the number of visitor parking spaces at the beginning of the semester to allot more parking to residents. Since the change, many visitors thought they parked legally overnight due to a lack of clear signs, but they returned the next morning to find their cars towed.

As a result, many of these visitors faced $175 in fines. The changes were made without alerting residents, DOTS confirmed.

Students have long complained of the lack of available parking at Courtyards, made worse when commuters often park in residents’ spaces and then ride the bus to the campus. Before the university enforced its changes, about five rows of visitor parking were available. Now, visitors’ cars must cram into one row of about 30 spaces.

Allen said his department towed at least 60 cars from Lot 8 in the Courtyards complex during the first two months of the semester but was not able to say how many cars have been towed from Lot 10, the complex’s only lot where visitors can park, by press time.

“It’s my understanding that the parking is much better this year,” Allen said.

Visitors like Jessica Stransky disagree. She lived in Courtyards for two years until she graduated in May, and at the time she never heard any complaints about the visitor parking.

During a visit to a friend in Courtyards two weekends ago, she said she parked in a spot that was once reserved for students. She saw no signs that explicitly said she could not park in her spot, but her car was towed and ticketed overnight. She paid a $100 towing fee and a $75 fine to DOTS.

“We parked there assuming it was visitor parking,” Stransky said. “We’d have thought there would be a sign saying a change had been made.”

After Stransky picked up her car from the university police’s impound lot the next morning, she questioned a DOTS official about the fairness of her situation. “The lady at DOTS basically said ‘tough luck,'” Stransky said.

Allen said there are 30 to 40 signs telling students where they can and cannot park.

“We are really the kind of service deliverer … like a hammer … a tool to help Courtyards to manage their parking,” Allen said.

But junior aerospace engineering major Matt Kosmer, whose car also got towed from what a Community Assistant said was visitor parking, said there were no signs distinguishing visitor parking from permit parking.

“There are actually only one or two signs covering entire lots of six or more rows of spacing,” Kosmer said. “I actually couldn’t see a sign, much less the front of a sign, from where I had parked that night.”

Kosmer was also upset because his friend, a Courtyards resident, was told by a Courtyards CA that his parking spot was fine. Kosmer said his friend never received any information at the beginning of the year from Capstone or from DOTS about parking policy changes. “[DOTS] just changed the lots and made no effort to let anyone know about it, besides making very subtle sign changes,” Kosmer said.

Stransky and Kosmer were both confused about the new push to tow so many cars from Courtyards parking lots. They both said the lots were not crowded when they were towed.

“On a scale from full to empty, it was empty,” Kosmer said. “And it was still basically deserted when I went to find my car the next day.”

Allen said his department is just following the posted rules and is justified in towing cars, especially given all the residents’ complaints in previous years.

“Residents wanted us to do this because a ticket doesn’t create a [parking] space,” he said.

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