GSP Board of Commissioners approved $1.5 million toward the Rental Car Relocation budget and was brought up-to-date with the $101 million Terminal Improvement Project (TIP) during today's meeting with GSP Executive Director Dave Edwards.
A $5 fee will reserve parking on the date passengers are ticketed to leave GSP and all daily parking fees will apply. Each subsequent reservation will require a $5 fee.
Roslyn Weston, spokeswoman for GSP, presented the board of commissioners with the plan. The spaces reserved include 50 in the long-term, 20 each in two satellite parking lots and 20 in the daily lot.
"The lots will be near the parking booths so that attendants can monitor ticketed passengers with reservations," Weston said. "Signage will be posted in every other parking space to identify reserved parking."
"This is a pilot program for us. We may have to tweak it along the way," Edwards said. "There are two downsides. People will park there who shouldn't and it will take spaces out of inventory."
No investment is required except for signage.
The rental car counter/office will be relocated from the baggage claim area of the terminal to the first and second levels of parking garage A. "The need for the demolition and destruction of parking lot A enables us to get going with the Terminal Improvement Project," Edwards said. The rental car relocation is tentatively scheduled for June 1.
Minor Shaw, board commissioner, suggested the public to be kept informed of all interruptions to the normal traffic flow within the airport. "Customer convenience is important," Shaw said. GSP officials said the public will be educated through its website and signage entering the airport. The relocation project will be funded through customer facility charges and is a separately budgeted program item.
The TIP is targeted to improve the airport's passenger flow and operational and energy efficiency. It keeps GSP in compliance with higher security standards set by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.
GSP, on March 1, converted the former rental car return lot to its new cell phone lot. The cell phone lot is accessible 24/7 where motorists can wait for free until their arriving passenger is ready to be picked up from the terminal. The new lot provides 50 spaces in comparison to the former lot which only had 12 spaces. Vehicles in the cell phone lot must be attended at all times.