The gravel lot next to the Recreation and Wellness Center, which holds about 350 cars, will be closed in March to make room for a new heating plant.

But with the rec center opening in February, a lot containing 350 spots will be opened with replacement parking.

"The fully improved lot will take the place of the gravel lot," said Lowell Croskey, senior associate vice president of Facilities Planning and Operation.

"The replacement lot will be completed before the gravel lot is closed," Croskey said.

Randy Ristow, manager of Parking Services, said some of the Wellness Center spaces will be reserved for faculty, staff and patrons of the facility. The rest will be open to commuters.

Parking at the Wellness Center is not the only concern for students and parking services, though.

Lewis Piper, executive director of the Commuter and Off-Campus Student Organization, said this change and the proposal to return a gravel lot next to the Michael Schwartz Center into a grassy area is not the way to better service commuters.

COSO is planning to petition the university to keep the gravel lot open and to get it paved.

"Our main goal with the petitions is to show the administration in writing that the students want the lot and they want it paved over," Piper said.

Ristow said the university has a policy to preserve the green spaces on campus.

The university wants to keep the interior of campus more pedestrian friendly and put parking around the campus perimeter, Ristow said.

"I doubt we'll look into paving the lot," Ristow said. "The long-range goal is to be able to not to have parking there."

Piper says the large number of commuters cannot handle any loss in commuter spaces in the gravel lots.

"If the university is planning on taking it (the lot) away, that's going backwards on what they actually want to do," Piper said.

Ristow says the university is seriously considering keeping the gravel lot for the future.