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is putting its plans to build a parking garage near its on hold as it requests a 15-year extension from the .

The university already has a surface parking at the site, said Brian Newman, OHSU director of campus planning, development and real estate. The lot was part of construction of the university’s 400,000-square-foot Center for Health and Healing in 2006. But the city of Portland forbids surface parking lots in the South Waterfront from being permanent, so OHSU was required to build a parking garage on a portion of the lot within five years.

鈥淏ut because of the recession and other financial pressures we were never able to build that parking garage,鈥� Newman said.

With the permit for the approximately 500 surface parking spaces set to expire in January, OHSU is putting in an application to extend it for 15 years. A pre-application conference is set for April 25. Newman said the application is largely procedural and the university still plans to build the parking garage once the funds are available. He said the cost of construction for the structure would likely run between $15 million and $20 million.

Newman said extending the life of the parking lot would also help the university meet increased parking demands that would come with the Schnitzer Campus, a development that would be built on 26 acres of land to accommodate the university’s growth. He said current codes allow the university 2.4 parking spaces per 1,000 feet of development. Once the Schnitzer Campus is complete, the parking ratio will be closer to just two parking spaces per 1,000 feet, he said.

鈥淯ltimately, with all of our surface parking we’re basically land banking those sites for future development,鈥� Newman said. 鈥淚t’s just a question of when they get developed.”

“Within that 15-year time frame,” he said, “we’ll have to pull the trigger and invest the funds to convert those surface parking spaces to structured spaces.鈥�