Life intruded again, delaying my having time to transcribe what I promised I would do from last Tuesday, but here it is in entirety.
QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION
On if it would not be ready for the start of preseason camp (Harris):
"We would love to be able to get it done as close to the start of camp as possible with it being completed hopefully in August and camp starting in August. We are not sure how the exact dates will match up, but we certainly want to get it up and running as used by our sports teams and our football program as soon as possible."
On if they have the necessary permits and funding (answered by Norton and someone else):
"We have submitted the permits for approval by the city. They are in the approval process, so we're confident we'll get those back soon. Funding is enhances, so the funds are committed. We're ready to roll. We have the programing, the design and construction folks lined up. Permitting is the final (piece). We're ready to go."
Is this what Tulane envisions to be the permanent solution (Harris):
"At this point we see this as an opportunity to deal with our needs immediately, but we will continue to look at other options for permanency."
On approximate length of width and length of playing surface:
"So the width is supposed to be similar to be similar to a normal football field, but the length will be somewhere between 65 and 70 yards is what we believe we will be able to fit in that space. Given where we are building it, we have to conform it to the space, and it doesn't allow for a full-length field, but it allows us enough field that we know that our teams can have it as a useful facility, and it makes a lot of sense for us."
On if it is comparable to what other schools have, citing Missouri as specific example:
"It is. We've been many places and there are lots of programs that have these facilities and many of them are of a similar size and similar length"
On being told that people will be able to park in Diboll, but Diboll often already filled up by students and the worry that more students will park in front of neighborhood houses and what is the net loss of parking spots (Brian Johnson of campus operations)
"In the Claiborne lot there are approximately 300 spaces. One thing to know is we have two lots that are coming back on line in the fall--McAlister Avenue right in front of the new village residence halls about 25 spaces. Engineering Row 90 spaces. We continue to look at our policies around who can park on campus and potentially adjusting which students can park on campus. We will be pulling juniors who live off campus on to campus and adjusting hopefully some of that pressure that you might feel as a neighbor by them moving on campus, and that's modifying our policies in how we handle on-campus parking. We have some assets downtown that we can put into play as well, so we're hopeful that we can ease your burden."
On if that means they will be losing approximately 190 parking spaces and again about Diboll being full during the week:
"It will take on average, a recent parking study we had between 120 and 175 open spaces per day. Another key element is a lot of our faculty come to school when they have to teach a course. A lot of remote work continues with a lot of our staff, so we have an average of around 150 spots. We do see some increase in that pressure now because of the construction activity on campus wrapping up a few projects. We have a lot of construction parking utilizing the Diboll Garage. We anticipate as that wraps up this summer--two major projects, Richardson and then also the Village Part II as the residence halls come online in the fall, that will help ease some of our pressure in the fall."
On who parks on the Claiborne lot now:
"Predominantly Claiborne now we have 60 fleet vehicles, and it is not a premier spot for any of our students and faculty and staff. To put that more clearly, our university parking committee considers Claiborne out of bounds for faculty to park there, so they will not park there because it's outside of the 10-minute walk zone to get to some of the key academic areas on campus. Now we have some athletes who practice early in the morning who park there, some of the coaches park their cars there and then a lot of fleet vehicles, some TV pieces of equipment, facilities pieces of equipment, but it is not considered by us an active spot for our students to park there because they don't like to walk that far."
On where the fleet vehicles will go:
"We are going to relocate the fleet vehicles through this process. We've been working to identify where we can put the 60 fleet vehicles that are currently in Claiborne so we can determine how many spaces we can have for general parking in Claiborne once we get going. But we have two spots identified, and we're working through that now. We've got a lot of moving pieces with that project."
On what percentage of the campus will be dedicated to football and baseball facilities:
(This was a weird question that provoked some debate about the definition of what constituted space, but they settled on 20 percent).
On what kind of variances they need to handle parking and the setback requirements for the facility:
"In terms of the permitting process we haven't had to apply for any variances at this point."
On if adding a building of that size does not require a variance for the reduction of parking:
"We're not building a football stadium with a parking lot. We're building a practice facility that largely the parking is going to be accounted for in other buildings. I don't think we need to address any parking for this project."
On if comprehensive parking plan was included in project:
"It's not required."
On if trucks involved in construction project will travel down residential streets and whether or not there will be landscaping to make it less visible:
"Yes, we would do that in the project."
On if project would mess up the easement next to the houses on one side of the Claiborne lot:
"We wouldn't be encroaching upon the easements with this facility.
On the plan for cleaning the facility after it is up because white building get dirty:
(my recorder did not catch exactly what was said in the answer, but the gist was it would not be a problem)
On the timeline for when to take the sides and covering down in event of hurricane:
(the answer was 72 hours)
On where workers will park for this project and if the facility will be available for club sports in the area:
"There will be spots available in the Claiborne lot. It's a pretty modest construction project, so the first pass is the Claiborne lot itself for parking."
HARRIS answered the second part: "We plan to have the facility available for our student-athletes and at request from Tulane students. We are not planning to open this facility up for public usage. The idea is it is for our 17 sports in the athletic program and then when we have space available for the students. I'd say save for special events like the Super Bowl, on a daily basis this will not be used as a public facility."
On how the process will work for taking it down:
"The practice facility itself is pressurized. It's dis-inflatable."
On economic impact Tulane has on community:
"It's tremendous. The impact on our city and our state is huge. We have 7,000 employees and have grown our employee base by 1,200 employees over the past decade on our campuses. Between jobs and financial impact both direct and indirect, we're the largest private employer in Orleans."
On if Tulane owns the land:
"We own it."
QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION
On if it would not be ready for the start of preseason camp (Harris):
"We would love to be able to get it done as close to the start of camp as possible with it being completed hopefully in August and camp starting in August. We are not sure how the exact dates will match up, but we certainly want to get it up and running as used by our sports teams and our football program as soon as possible."
On if they have the necessary permits and funding (answered by Norton and someone else):
"We have submitted the permits for approval by the city. They are in the approval process, so we're confident we'll get those back soon. Funding is enhances, so the funds are committed. We're ready to roll. We have the programing, the design and construction folks lined up. Permitting is the final (piece). We're ready to go."
Is this what Tulane envisions to be the permanent solution (Harris):
"At this point we see this as an opportunity to deal with our needs immediately, but we will continue to look at other options for permanency."
On approximate length of width and length of playing surface:
"So the width is supposed to be similar to be similar to a normal football field, but the length will be somewhere between 65 and 70 yards is what we believe we will be able to fit in that space. Given where we are building it, we have to conform it to the space, and it doesn't allow for a full-length field, but it allows us enough field that we know that our teams can have it as a useful facility, and it makes a lot of sense for us."
On if it is comparable to what other schools have, citing Missouri as specific example:
"It is. We've been many places and there are lots of programs that have these facilities and many of them are of a similar size and similar length"
On being told that people will be able to park in Diboll, but Diboll often already filled up by students and the worry that more students will park in front of neighborhood houses and what is the net loss of parking spots (Brian Johnson of campus operations)
"In the Claiborne lot there are approximately 300 spaces. One thing to know is we have two lots that are coming back on line in the fall--McAlister Avenue right in front of the new village residence halls about 25 spaces. Engineering Row 90 spaces. We continue to look at our policies around who can park on campus and potentially adjusting which students can park on campus. We will be pulling juniors who live off campus on to campus and adjusting hopefully some of that pressure that you might feel as a neighbor by them moving on campus, and that's modifying our policies in how we handle on-campus parking. We have some assets downtown that we can put into play as well, so we're hopeful that we can ease your burden."
On if that means they will be losing approximately 190 parking spaces and again about Diboll being full during the week:
"It will take on average, a recent parking study we had between 120 and 175 open spaces per day. Another key element is a lot of our faculty come to school when they have to teach a course. A lot of remote work continues with a lot of our staff, so we have an average of around 150 spots. We do see some increase in that pressure now because of the construction activity on campus wrapping up a few projects. We have a lot of construction parking utilizing the Diboll Garage. We anticipate as that wraps up this summer--two major projects, Richardson and then also the Village Part II as the residence halls come online in the fall, that will help ease some of our pressure in the fall."
On who parks on the Claiborne lot now:
"Predominantly Claiborne now we have 60 fleet vehicles, and it is not a premier spot for any of our students and faculty and staff. To put that more clearly, our university parking committee considers Claiborne out of bounds for faculty to park there, so they will not park there because it's outside of the 10-minute walk zone to get to some of the key academic areas on campus. Now we have some athletes who practice early in the morning who park there, some of the coaches park their cars there and then a lot of fleet vehicles, some TV pieces of equipment, facilities pieces of equipment, but it is not considered by us an active spot for our students to park there because they don't like to walk that far."
On where the fleet vehicles will go:
"We are going to relocate the fleet vehicles through this process. We've been working to identify where we can put the 60 fleet vehicles that are currently in Claiborne so we can determine how many spaces we can have for general parking in Claiborne once we get going. But we have two spots identified, and we're working through that now. We've got a lot of moving pieces with that project."
On what percentage of the campus will be dedicated to football and baseball facilities:
(This was a weird question that provoked some debate about the definition of what constituted space, but they settled on 20 percent).
On what kind of variances they need to handle parking and the setback requirements for the facility:
"In terms of the permitting process we haven't had to apply for any variances at this point."
On if adding a building of that size does not require a variance for the reduction of parking:
"We're not building a football stadium with a parking lot. We're building a practice facility that largely the parking is going to be accounted for in other buildings. I don't think we need to address any parking for this project."
On if comprehensive parking plan was included in project:
"It's not required."
On if trucks involved in construction project will travel down residential streets and whether or not there will be landscaping to make it less visible:
"Yes, we would do that in the project."
On if project would mess up the easement next to the houses on one side of the Claiborne lot:
"We wouldn't be encroaching upon the easements with this facility.
On the plan for cleaning the facility after it is up because white building get dirty:
(my recorder did not catch exactly what was said in the answer, but the gist was it would not be a problem)
On the timeline for when to take the sides and covering down in event of hurricane:
(the answer was 72 hours)
On where workers will park for this project and if the facility will be available for club sports in the area:
"There will be spots available in the Claiborne lot. It's a pretty modest construction project, so the first pass is the Claiborne lot itself for parking."
HARRIS answered the second part: "We plan to have the facility available for our student-athletes and at request from Tulane students. We are not planning to open this facility up for public usage. The idea is it is for our 17 sports in the athletic program and then when we have space available for the students. I'd say save for special events like the Super Bowl, on a daily basis this will not be used as a public facility."
On how the process will work for taking it down:
"The practice facility itself is pressurized. It's dis-inflatable."
On economic impact Tulane has on community:
"It's tremendous. The impact on our city and our state is huge. We have 7,000 employees and have grown our employee base by 1,200 employees over the past decade on our campuses. Between jobs and financial impact both direct and indirect, we're the largest private employer in Orleans."
On if Tulane owns the land:
"We own it."
