EVERGREEN, Colo. — Local restaurants and stores fill the heart of Evergreen, bringing a special small-town experience to both longtime residents and newcomers alike.
"Evergreen is pretty historic. Our main street is one of the last authentic ones in Colorado," said President of the Evergreen Downtown Business Association Megan Mitchell. "We're an unincorporated county, so it is troubling at times, but at the same time, it keeps our authenticity."
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Denver7 | Your Voice took a trip up to Evergreen in December to listen to why people love to live, work, and play in this mountain town. Several business owners emphasized locals being their "bread and butter," with regulars helping keep the doors open, especially during the colder months.
"I feel like since we're such a small mountain community, we still need to have Main Street. Our restaurants, our coffee shops, our businesses all open. We have all our little fun festivals in the summer and the winter, and I feel like we are Evergreen because of our downtown Main Street heart of Evergreen," said Aspen Moscoso.
Moscoso was born and raised in Evergreen and works with her mother in Aspen's Consignments, which sells a wide variety of women's clothes, including accessories and shoes. Moscoso described how the parking situation hurts downtown businesses by driving away customers, adding that they validate parking tickets.
"I know everybody's so scared about the parking because they're receiving tickets and all that, but I just want everybody to know if you are a customer, a client, anything, you literally just come on in the doors after you park, get a QR code, and you can park for free," Moscoso said.
Signs with QR codes are visible in the parking lot behind Aspen's Consignments, also known as Evergreen Mountain Market. Drivers must pay a fee to park. Now, if someone does not pay that fee, tickets are being issued for $92.
Mitchell said the private lot owners did not charge for parking during the pandemic, so the new penalties caught community members by surprise.
"They can do whatever they want with their lot. But we just want to let the community and tourists know that it's not a discouragement, that they can come here and that we're still open for business," Mitchell said.
Eric Gill, owner of Bear Paw Stanbro Property Management, described how parking troubles are hurting downtown businesses and driving potential customers away.
"When you get that ticket, it makes you mad, and so people get on social media and then all of us business owners down here, we're like, 'Oh, don't do that, don't hurt us down here.' We want people to come down and go to the second Saturdays and come down and spend money," Gill said. "We don't want to scare them, and that's what happens, is people [are like] 'Oh, I'm not going down there.' They heard about that ticket. That's crazy."
One potential solution to the parking predicament is that nearby businesses will validate the tickets, including Aspen's Consignment and Java Groove. Eric Martinez, owner of Java Groove, hopes the community will continue supporting the local spots and urges people to ask questions surrounding the parking validations.
"I think it's different depending on who you ask. Us, the business owners down here, we really want to get the message out that despite the things that are set up out there, it's not that scary and you actually never have to actually pay," said Martinez. "You don't have to. You can come in and get a promo code, and you're good to go."
Denver7 spoke with Pam Carlstrom about the current situation after she parked downtown. The eight-year Evergreen resident says her husband recently received a $92 ticket, and they are disputing it.
"It keeps people from not wanting to come — that's just the bottom line," said Carlstrom. "A lot of the community, businesses that are in this area — I mean, this is a big deal for people not to be able to park. People coming from down the hill, commuters, just to be able to park here. I think it's destroying the business opportunities."
Looking ahead, Mitchell and others hope parking fears will ease, encouraging drivers to utilize the free parking spots downtown or stop inside the businesses willing to help with parking expenses.
"There's some learning curve to this and some change that I know our local community has been frustrated about," said Mitchell. "But we have some community leaders like myself and Nancy Judge of the (Evergreen) Chamber, that have been more than willing to help you figure out the solution."
Mitchell encourages anyone with concerns about their $92 parking ticket to email her at DowntownEvergreenpresident@gmail.com.
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