Parking rates to rise $1 a day at garages near Shands on Nov. 2

October 26, 2009

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Patients and visitors wanting to park their cars in one of the three garages adjacent to Shands at the University of Florida and the UF Health Science Center will pay $1 more a day beginning Nov. 2.

The parking fee is increasing from $3 a day to $4 a day in the garage fronting Newell Drive and in the two garages accessible from Mowry Road.

Disabled visitors have been exempt from paying parking fees on the health care campus, but they now will be required to pay the same parking fee as everyone else as allowable by Florida law.

UF’s Transportation and Parking Services oversees the garages. Officials decided to raise the fees to help offset the rising costs associated with operating and maintaining the 25-year-old structures. The same rates have been in place since 1998.

Meanwhile, the cost of valet parking at Shands at UF will increase from $5 to $6 effective Nov. 2 to coincide with the UF parking fee increase.

Shands also will offer valet parking on its new south campus, which includes the Shands Cancer Hospital and Shands Critical Care Center. This service will be complimentary through the end of the year while the patient/visitor parking lot is completed.