Colorado Springs boosting parking charges, extending meter hours beginning Jan. 1 (Denver: hotel, lawyer)

[Vision67]

https://gazette.com/news/colorado-sp...c874431af.html

"Parking in downtown Colorado Springs and Old Colorado City is going to be more expensive beginning Jan. 1 as the city looks to generate more revenue and steer more vehicles toward its lots and multistory garages.

Parking meters will go up by 25 cents an hour while hours of operation will be extended from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Sunday. Daily and monthly rates also will go up at city-operated garages and surface lots, according to a news release sent out Friday. Now, metered parking begins at 8 or 9 a.m., depending on the location, and ends at 6 p.m. Sundays had been free.

The increased revenue will help pay for upkeep and updated technology, city officials said.

“We have a lot of deferred maintenance on our structures. We need to update our meters to a newer technology and to offer a better service to our customers overall — and that takes money,” said Scott Lee, the city’s parking director.

The upcoming change is part of a multiyear plan to increase hourly parking prices by about 25 cents annually, Lee said.

But, “we won’t reach Denver rates,” he added. “I never want to be compared to Denver as far as rates.”

Rates for the city’s roughly 2,600 parking meters in downtown and Old Colorado City haven’t been increased in 14 years.

Meters closest to the city center will charge $1.25 per hour, and meters further out from the downtown core will have an hourly rate of $1.

The city’s three downtown parking garages will charge the following daily rates Monday through Friday: 50 cents for 30 minutes or less; $1 for an hour; and $1 or less for each additional hour with a $9 daily maximum.

The garages are at Cascade Avenue and Bijou Street, Colorado and Nevada avenues and Kiowa Street and Nevada Avenue.

The price of a monthly parking permit for those garages will increase from $60 to $70 a month, though groups of 75 or more may be eligible for discounts.

Garage parking during special events will also increase from $3 to $5.

Monthly parking at the city’s Old Colorado City surface lot, at Cucharras Street and 26th Street, will cost $35 instead of the current $10.

The goal is to encourage people who are parking for a relatively short time to use the meters and steer those who are staying for a longer to the more affordable garages, Lee said.

“We don’t want people circling the block looking for a parking spot,” he said.

Downtown business owners have been pushing to extend meter hours to increase turnover in spots close to shops and restaurants, said Susan Edmondson, president and CEO of the Downtown Partnership of Colorado Springs. Because the meters stop charging at 6 p.m., employees and hotel guests will often occupy spots all night.

“This (change in hours) now allows customers and restaurant patrons — a couple each evening — to have access to that on-street parking. That’s what meters are designed to do, is create that churn,” Edmonson said. “With all the hundreds of new residents, hundreds of new patrons, and more to come downtown, we think this is a smart and moderate approach that is part of a growing city.”

The Gazette reported this summer that the city was weighing the changes. The city’s parking enterprise sought input from the Downtown Partnership and input from other “key stakeholders,” and the mayor approved the new rates on Friday, city spokeswoman Jamie Fabos said in an email.

“There was initially some people questioning it,” Lee said. “Once you explain the logic and the rationale behind why we need to do this, most people are on board with it.”

City parking revenues totaled nearly $5 million last year, and the new rates are expected to bring in about $1 million or so more next year, Lee said.

That money will help pay for parking structure needs identified during a recent assessment, including elevator replacements, lighting and signage upgrades and maintenance that will prevent water from seeping through the concrete and rusting underlying rebar.

“All that just adds up to a large amount of money,” Lee said.

The city is also considering implementing new meter technology that would allow for better data collection and upgrading parking garage gates to make getting in and out easier and faster.

Some new meters will be installed early next year that will allow customers to extend parking time at a progressive cost and add time to their meters remotely using a smartphone app, according to the city news release.

Even with the changes, Colorado Springs rates will still remain relatively low in comparison to many other cities, Lee said.

The city still won’t make the list of the top 40 cities with the highest hourly rates and will rank 39th in daily garage parking prices, city officials have determined, using 2018 data from the global parking information website Parkopedia."

Dang! There goes my cheap $1 per evening parking at the Kiowa Garage.

[otowi]

Bummer!

[DrDog]

Working our way towards being a real city?

[Miss Hepburn]

Thank you!

[Mike from back east]

Meters at $1.25/hour is laughable by big city standards. I used to visit a lawyer downtown at Tejon and Colorado where I always found an open / metered spot. My lawyer always told me to park in the free lot for their building. I'd chuckle and tell her I was from DC where people will chew your leg off to get a metered spot on the street and pay $$$/hour for the privilege. Street parking in COLO SPGS, easily available, and dirt cheap was like hitting a jackpot.

"Rates for the city’s roughly 2,600 parking meters in downtown and Old Colorado City haven’t been increased in 14 years."
How sick is that. Rents go up every year -- ask a renter. The city fathers are not succeeding at their mission.

[mtngigi]

Can't believe they're adding Sunday to the mix. Guess that means no more movies at Kimball's.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by mtngigi

Can't believe they're adding Sunday to the mix. Guess that means no more movies at Kimball's.

We used the city garage when we went to movies at Kimball's. IIRC at 2PM the price for the city garage (next to the bus terminal) dropped down to just $1 for the rest of the day, so we'd look for a movie that started @2:15 PM, pull into the garage at 2:01 then walk out the back (south) side of the garage and cross the street to Kimball's. There are some good eats near there too.

[mtngigi]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

We used the city garage when we went to movies at Kimball's. IIRC at 2PM the price for the city garage (next to the bus terminal) dropped down to just $1 for the rest of the day, so we'd look for a movie that started @2:15 PM, pull into the garage at 2:01 then walk out the back (south) side of the garage and cross the street to Kimball's. There are some good eats near there too.

That is a good option, if you have knees that work the way they're supposed to, which I don't. It was nice not having to worry about the meters by Kimball's running out while inside watching a movie.

Give folks a break on that one day, or at least shorten those hours a bit ... 1 p.m. - 10 p.m.? Yeah, right. I wonder if businesses that have done well on Sundays because of free parking will experience a change?

[orngkat]

I haven't tried it here but seems like catching a bus to go downtown might be an easy solution for spending some time downtown without worrying about parking spaces. I guess one would have to find a place further north to park first though.

[Vision67]

Colorado Springs installing new meters downtown where parking had been free

https://gazette.com/news/colorado-sp...0b6654edd.html

"Redevelopment in downtown Colorado Springs is coming with more encouragement to move your car along — new parking meters that connect to your phone via an app.

The city is replacing the parking meters in downtown and Old Colorado City with smart meters and installing about 350 new meters in areas that were previously free. When all the meters are replaced and the new ones installed, the city will have about 3,000 new smart parking meters, said Scott Lee, parking director for the city. The city expects to spend about $1.8 million on all the meters, each expected to last about 10 years, he said.

The new meters are going in along the blocks across from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum on the western edge of downtown to prepare for the additional growth the area will see, including the opening of the new downtown stadium on West Cimarron Street where the Switchbacks will play, Lee said.

The city is also introducing new meters in the block east of Nevada Avenue between East Vermijo Avenue and West Cimarron Street, an area adjacent to metered parking.

"We want to fill the gaps and make sure we have metered parking in all the places that it should be," said Jennifer Schreuder, a spokeswoman for the city.

The city was waiting to put in meters east of Nevada between Vermijo Avenue and Cimarron Street until street reconstruction in the area happened, she said.


Colorado Springs City Council informally approved spending $1.1 million from the parking enterprise reserve on 1,800 meters this week to make sure the parking meter project can continue uninterrupted, Lee said. The project was previously expected to be continued next year, but now it is expected to be done by the end of the year or early next year, Lee said.

Once the city installs at lest 1,300 new meters it plans to turn on a feature of the smart meters that will allow those with the corresponding phone app, ParkMobile, to find available parking spots. The feature is made possible by in-ground sensors in each parking spot that track whether its occupied or not. The sensors also allow meters to reset when a driver leaves allowing the city resell time paid for by the previous driver to the next driver, he said. Through the new technology, the city can create heat maps to see where drivers are not complying with time limits, he said.

The city rolled out the new phone app over the summer and about 400 to 500 people per day are using it to pay their parking meter. The app alerts drivers when time is about to expire so they can avoid tickets and don't overpay the meter initially, Lee said.

"It's great technology. I think it will be a really great thing for us," he said.

While parking is returning to normal downtown since the stay-at-home order was issued in March, it is following a different pattern, Lee said. Far more people are coming down earlier in the day and the parking garages that used to fill up with office workers are now generally empty above the third deck, he said.

However, the city has continued to see plenty of tourist traffic, particularly in Old Colorado City, he said. "

That feature which identifies available parking places will save time. Cool!