Student parking has been a hot-button issue among students and administrators, but now district officials might have a solution.

For months now, administration has had their sights set on a stretch of land just east of campus, with hopes that they could purchase and develop a new student parking lot.

Before buying the land, the school must obtain approval from the school board, but that has already been done.

“The school board has approved the district administration to attempt a purchase of some land,” principal Dan Serrano said.

The piece of land they are investigating is the empty lot in between the LDS seminary and Jehovah’s Witness buildings, consisting of about 4.6 acres of land.

In order to buy the property, the land must be inspected and the value assessed. The land may not be purchased by the school if the owner refuses to sell the land for the price the land is valued at or less.

Serrano said, “The district is in conversation with the owner right now. They are kind of negotiating back and forth.” It is possible that within the next semester, the land could be purchased.

However, hopes should not be high for a solution to be presented this year. Serrano said, “Even if they sold it today you wouldn’t see additional parking this school year.” With the time necessary negotiate a price, gather money in order to build, and complete construction, it could take a while to be completed.

Recently there has been a traffic light installed on 156th Street that has generated a large amount of controversy. Wiith all the ease of entry and exit it creates, many love the light, but some are annoyed by the increase of traffic it has created.

This new traffic light presents a much safer way to undergo the daily drop off and pick up of students. Serrano said, “I think that the best thing about that traffic light is when people are on 156th and they want to turn left, it’s safer.”

One problem that the light has brought with it is a significant increase in traffic flow, but that problem could soon be solved. Serrano said, “The city does have some sort of contraption that is monitoring traffic flow, so they could change the timing on that.”

If the timing is changed and the traffic flow becomes smoother, this traffic light could become beneficial to all drivers on the road.

Also, the Town of Gilbert will soon be opening a cemetery near the Greenfield and Queen Creek Roads across the street from Perry. With a rising population of about 240,000 Gilbert citizens, this will be the first cemetery to be constructed in Gilbert after 96 years of Gilbert citizens being moved elsewhere to be buried.

According to the Town, Gilbert’s mortality rate was 1,318 deaths per 100,000 residents in 2015, which has called the attention of the town to finally build a cemetery.

The cemetery will be about 22 acres large and is estimated to accommodate around 9,000 burials (or have a 75 year capacity) once it is put into action.

The cemetery is anticipated to have a traditional burial ground, funeral home, cremation garden, mausoleum and private estates with several ponds throughout the area.

With a cemetery closer to home, funeral goers will be able to focus on being at the cemetery rather than how they are going to get there.