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Per the development plan set forth in the Parkview Campus Master Plan, construction on the former Lee Baker Farm began in 2000 on the loop road, utilities infrastructure, the stormwater retention system, the environmentally-friendly landscaping (only indigenous species plantings, including establishing prairie grasses), the parking ramps, and the buildings for the College of Engineering, the Energy Resource Center (ERC), and the Coating Paper Pilot Plant. The first tenants of the Business, Technology and Research Park began arriving in 2001, and the ERC went 'on-line' as well. The Pilot Plant opened and was dedicated in the fall of 2002 and the College of Engineering building opened for classes in August, 2003. Traffic flow and congestion between the Parkview and Main Campuses was a concern of both the City of Kalamazoo and the University. Also needing to be addressed were potential parking headaches and class-change traffic tie-ups. A series of meetings involving WMU faculty, students and staff and representatives of the Metro Transit System led to a comprehensive transportation plan, implemented Fall Semester 2003. The transportation plan centered on reducing student automobile travel between the campuses. Parking passes were limited to one campus, although the student had the option of purchasing a pass for both. To ferry all the students back and forth who had class on both campuses, who lived in the neighborhoods near the Main Campus (Parkview neighborhoods are not zoned for multi-tenant student housing), or who did not have cars, the University contracted with Metro Transit to provide a new Parkview Express Route. Commuter routes were modified to provide more complete service to student housing complexes along Drake Road and West Michigan and KL Avenues. Because freshman would typically have more classes on the Main Campus than at Parkview, they were anchored to the Main Campus and required to use the Express bus for Parkview travel. |
