Beginning Monday, south-campus commuters will find something new for their sun-baked cars–shaded parking.

A new three-level parking structure is scheduled to open near the future Center for the Arts north of Interstate 80. (See map).

At the same time, a new entrance called "New Davis Road" will also open Monday, providing closer access from the freeway to the parking garage and adjacent lots.

The garage will immediately provide an additional 500 parking spaces. Cliff Contreras, parking services manager, said another 215 spaces will become available in late October after workers finish metal trellises on the outside of the structure.

Those trellises will eventually support vines that will screen the garage’s concrete exterior, Contreras said.

Parking in the lower level will be for vehicles with "A" permits only. On the first and second levels, both "C" and "A" permits will be valid.

The elevator won’t be operational until late October, Contreras said. However, he said, all of the structure’s 15 spaces for people with disabilities are located on the ground level. Metered spaces are found there as well.

With the opening of the new roadway, the current entrance near the Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center to parking lots 1 and 2 will close.

To get to the garage or nearby lots, motorists coming from the freeway will drive past the visitor kiosk straight onto New Davis Road, rather than zigzagging north on California Avenue and east again on Old Davis Road as they currently do.

After parking, they will be able to take their pick of a pair of walkways on either side of the Center for the Arts construction site.

In addition to an existing path that takes walkers to the alumni center and Mrak Hall Drive, a second walkway will cross from the west end of the parking structure to Old Davis Road and the arboretum.

Beginning Monday, people who choose to park in the most distant Lot 2 will now have a chance at buying discounted "L" permits. Those permits cost $22 a month, compared to monthly fees of $33 for "C" permits and $41 for "A" permits.

When the 714-space parking structure is completed, there will be spaces for more than 1,500 cars and trucks in the area. Parking Lot 1 has room for 706 vehicles with "A" or "C" permits; Lot 2, open to drivers with "A," "C" and "L" permits, has 147 spaces.