Paid parking along College Avenue considered for Old Town Fort Collins in Colorado
The City of Fort Collins may soon conduct a study that would explore changes to its current parking rules, which may include adding a charge to parking along College Avenue in historic Old Town. The city's parking department is seeking permission from the city council to move forward with research to see what changes to its current parking setup would improve the visitor experience while also helping better fund the city's initiatives.
"(Old Town) is a vibrant community that brings in a lot of different users," said Eric Keselburg, Parking Services Manager for Fort Collins. "We have a lot of people that love coming to our downtown area."
However, the amount of people visiting, especially on weekend evenings, has grown so much that the demand for parking is now causing traffic delays and more at times.
The city manages 3,100 on-street parking spots and 1,700 off-street spots. However, Keselburg said the city's longstanding practice is an "upside-down model." That means the city charges for parking in garages which are less convenient and further away, while not charging for parking along popular stretches like College Avenue and Mountain Street.
That model has resulted in many people driving slowly up and down the Old Town area searching for prime and free parking, emitting more emissions and causing delays.
"People are trying to find that optimal parking space instead of taking advantage of our parking system," Keselburg said. "How do we right-size our operation and serve all different user groups?"
Keselburg hopes a study into the city's parking and options would provide better options and sets of rules that would ultimately improve the experience for visitors, businesses, and the city's budget.
In Old Town, most on-street parking spots are free with a two-hour time limit. Those who do not want to pay for spots are simply required to move their vehicles at least one block away to restart that time.
Meanwhile, most parking garages in the area charge around $1 per hour for unlimited time in a given spot.
Keselburg said his office would like to learn if charging for parking along College Avenue would encourage more thoughtful traffic patterns, and said he believed it would decrease the number of citations the city had to hand out for those overextending their stay in a time-limited spot.
"We don't want to penalize people for coming downtown. We want to push that traffic to long-term parking," Keselburg said.
Keselburg said his office would explore options that would make sure nearby businesses would be able to still serve their clientele.
If approved by the city, Keselburg hoped the results of the research would be completed by the Fall of 2024.
"The downtown stakeholders, the business owners, the visitors, how do we engage everyone so we can find the right balance of what that looks like?" Keselburg said.
