VALPARAISO | After looking at four options for on-street parking on LaPorte Avenue, the best option turns out to be the one that will be most expensive and require cooperation from Valparaiso University.

The parking is needed to provide enough spaces for developer Larry Gough's proposed $32 million redevelopment of about half the property bounded by Roosevelt Road, Lincolnway, University Drive and LaPorte. Gough needs about 90 spaces to accommodate the University Place development of about 180 apartments and some commercial use.

On Thursday, the city's Redevelopment Commission endorsed Gough's request that a segment of the on-street parking between Roosevelt and University be reserved for residents of the area. Gough said he won't need the parking until the second phase of the project, which won't be done until 2009.

The city hired Bird Houk Collaborative, of Chicago, to look at the parking situation on LaPorte all the way to the planned roundabout at Lincolnway and Sturdy Road. The options presented by the consultant included angle parking on both sides of LaPorte, a combination of angle parking on one side and parallel on the other, and reverse angle parking on both sides.

The option preferred by the city would include a median, angle parking on both sides from Roosevelt to University, and angle parking on the north and parallel parking on the south side from University to the roundabout. The median could have landscaping and decorative lighting as is planned for the rest of the Eastgate corridor project.

The benefits, along with beautifying the area and giving it what city Planning Director Craig Phillips said is "a whole new flavor," are that the median would provide a safe zone for pedestrians crossing the road and act as a traffic calming device. The biggest drawbacks are that it would double the cost of the project and require Valparaiso University to provide 15 feet of right of way on the south side to accommodate the sidewalk.

Gough told the commission all four of the options would work for his project. He already committed to donate the right of way needed on the north side for the parking and will contribute another $100,000 toward whatever improvements are made to LaPorte.

Mayor Jon Costas is scheduled to meet with VU President Alan Harre today to discuss the favored option and ask for the university's cooperation. The problem for VU is that it will force changes in the plans for the ring road around the northeast quadrant of the campus. The commission asked that its engineering consultant provide cost estimates for the preferred option.

Gough still hopes to start construction on the first buildings by late summer and have them ready in time for the start of school in the fall of 2008.