A car passes by the Mountain Parking Structure on March 16. Contractors working on the Mountain’s construction occupy two of the parking structure’s seven floors. Photos by Marcos Lizarraga
With the Mountain Parking Structure just over a year old, Pepperdine community members reflected on the its impact on campus parking and looked ahead to the future, including about 200 spaces returned to students once contractors finish construction of the Mountain at Mullin Park.
While many students said the parking structure helped, others said parking challenges still exist.
“I try not to take my car out during weekdays, especially at night, because when I come back there’s nothing available,” sophomore Lana Kim said. “I drove around the whole parking structure, even the Towers lot, and nothing was there.”
The parking garage opened in January 2025, adding 825 additional parking spots for students and faculty, according to previous Graphic reporting.
At the time, Myers Mentzer (’25), former Pepperdine Student Government Association president, said the parking structure solved the lack of parking on campus, according to previous Graphic reporting.
“This structure needs to be celebrated because we are no longer suffering from lack of parking,” Mentzer said in a February 2025 interview with the Graphic.
Kim said the parking structure has largely made parking on campus easier for her. She recalled a moment during her first year where she watched a suitemate walk to the Drescher lot just to reach her car.
“That’s when I first realized how horrible the parking situation was,” Kim said.
However, several students said they still faced some challenges related to parking.
First-year Henry Cripps said he noticed a shortage of available spaces at the parking structure, especially at night.
“I feel like we need more space,” Cripps said. “I’ll come back late at night, especially if it’s a school night, and 90% of the time there’s no parking available.”
Kim said she has driven around the entire structure on several occasions without finding an open space, ultimately parking on a floor her residential parking permit did not cover. She received a parking ticket.
Cripps said he resorted to parking near the Center for Communication and Business stairs until the Department for Public Safety began issuing tickets in that area, which he learned was reserved for commuter students.
Contractors finishing up construction on the Mountain at Mullin Park occupy the structure’s two negative levels. Ben Veenendaal, vice president for Planning, Operations, and Construction, said those roughly 200 spaces will be cleaned out and returned to University use once construction is complete.
First-year Lily Forester, whose residential parking permit restricts her to the fourth floor and above, said opening the negative levels would reduce congestion beyond the structure as well.
“It’ll definitely help being able to park so much lower,” Forester said. “And I think if they open up the other floors, there would be less [people] parking on the streets, and less traffic when people are trying to parallel park.”
Veenendaal said the University has more total parking spaces on campus than its combined student, faculty and staff population.
“It just at times may seem like there’s not enough parking,” Veenendaal said. “There is enough parking. It’s just not always in the places that people want it to be.”
Several students raised concerns about electric and clean air designated parking spots inside the structure.
Kim’s first parking ticket came from accidentally parking in a clean air space. She said her primary concern was spaces labeled for electric or clean air parking that have no charging equipment attached.
“It’s a little bit unfair how they have some spots labeled EV that don’t really have anything to do with it,” Kim said.
A parking space for clean air and electric vehicles lies empty in the Mountain Parking Structure on March 16. Clean air and electric vehicle spaces surrounding it were also empty.
Forester said the placement of EV spots on lower floors, where parking demand is highest, created problems for non-EV drivers.
“When it’s the bottom floors, where everyone wants to park, and there’s open spots but you can’t park there because it’s clean parking, that gets a little frustrating,” Forester said.
Cripps said the designated spots should be converted to general use.
“They should all just be normal parking spots,” Cripps said.
Veenendaal said the structure launched with 42 EV charging spaces, the minimum required by LA County and California code. The University has the infrastructure in place to expand to over 200 charging spots.
Veenendaal said the University has concepts for adding thousands of parking spaces to campus, but those plans compete with other campus priorities, including academic facilities.
“You have to balance the convenience of parking versus other very high-priority needs, like laboratories and academic spaces,” Veenendaal said.
A new parking structure can cost upward of $100 million for as few as 800 spaces, Veenendaal said. Parking does not rank among the University’s most urgent facility needs, but he added he would not rule out future parking projects.
“I’m never one to say that there isn’t always room for improvement,” Veenendaal said.
There have been no reported car accidents or other incidents in the parking structure, Veenendaal said.
_______________
Follow the Graphic on X: @PeppGraphic
Contact Marcos Lizarraga via email: marcos.lizarraga@pepperdine.edu