Four homes along with their tree-filled lots were demolished over the summer to begin the construction for the new health science building.

Three of these lots are now known as the new parking lot off Hampstead. All four houses and lots are owned by MSU.

This new lot has space for 63 cars, however, some concerns have been raised about how there’s never more than five cars in the parking lot. People are beginning to question if the parking lot is even necessary, and viewing it as a waste of resources.

Associate Vice President for Facilities Services, Kyle Owen, said, “I believe the parking lot will end up being used. The whole idea is that cars will need places to park with the expansion. This parking lot was just the first step. The expansion process was supposed to start in October, but there’s been problems with the budget causing it to be delayed.”

Over the past two decades, the university purchased these four houses along with two other houses off Hampstead. This has been done in preparation for the expansion. Before the destruction the houses were used as storage facilities, office space, and housing for visiting administrators.

Melanie Garcia, exercise physiology sophomore, said, “I hope that as the expansion moves forward the Hampstead parking lot will be used, and prove to not be such a waste of money. I think it just seems that way now because it is far from campus, but if that’s the way the expansion is moving then it should work out.”

Other individuals had concerns about how this project was funded. According to Valarie Maxwell, Director of Budget and Management, said, “The new Health Science and Human Service building’s footprint will require removal of the parking lot west of the McCoy Engineering Building.  The Hampstead lot will replace much of the parking spaces lost. Funding for the new Hampstead lot was provided as part of the overall project cost of the new building, quad with landscaping and hardscaping and sufficient parking.  The Hampstead lot funding came from interest earnings generated from investment of the tuition revenue bond proceeds.”

Another concern that arose was the amount of tress that were destroyed during this demolition. Individuals found it concerning because of the historical, aesthetic and environmental values these large trees had.

“I’ve lived in Wichita Falls my entire life so I know the area and history pretty well. Those trees off Hampstead have been there for decades, even before my parents who are from here, and now they’re gone!” Leah Slade, biology sophomore, said. She continued to say, “I don’t understand why they had to remove those all of those trees that are needed to help the environment.”

Owens’ explanation for removing the trees was, “We were trying to maximize parking spots. In order for the trees to live there has to be space left under the drip lines. The drip lines needed to be too big which would take up about six or seven parking spots. It was just not feasible.”

He also continued to say , “In an effort to be resourceful the building materials were saved in the house by the police station, and Habitat for Humanity came by and took what they wanted. However, the majority of the materials were in pretty bad shape.”

With the addition of more parking lots to patrol and a growing campus, some have worried if the police station will be able to handle it. Students also worry if the price for a parking permit will see an increase once again, to pay for the construction.

Sgt.  Albert Jimenes said, “Expansion does mean there will be more areas to patrol, but our training has prepared us for any kinds of circumstance seen in small campus’ and the bigger universities.”

To deal with the neighbors’ concerns, there was a meeting held in the summer to explain what was going to happen to the houses, and how that area would become a parking lot.  However, according to Owen, the neighbors aired their concerns, but the majority of the meeting was spent on their concerns for other campus aspects, not the parking lot.