ARVADA, Colo. — Paid parking could be coming to Olde Town Arvada.
It’s been a conversation the city has been considering for over a decade, noting that paid parking could be a solution some of the issues they are seeing in the area and encourage turnover in premium parking spots.
Denver7 reporter Lauren Lennon has more on what city leaders hope the proposal could achieve in the video below:
“In some spots, there are time limits. So, there's some two-hour and four-hour time limits, and we do enforce that. And there are tickets. And then you know what we see sometimes, is there's a challenge of finding a spot. So, people might park illegally. They are circling the block," explained Rachael Kuroiwa, the city’s director of Communication and Engagement.
“The landscape of parking has changed over the past 10 years in Olde Town, and Olde Town is also a really vibrant place that people want to go, and we hear from folks that it's sometimes difficult to find a parking spot,” she added.
In one of their presentations available online, the city cites that paid parking could improve safety and traffic congestion, increase availability of parking, and allow for more distribution of traffic across time and locations.
The city will present their proposal to city council during a study session Tuesday evening.
“Study sessions are not like, not casual. It's an official kind of type of meeting, but it's an opportunity for the team to present information, council to ask a lot of questions, give their feedback, maybe some direction, and that would be before anything would move forward to any sort of like, formal vote or changes to our processes right now,” said Kuroiwa.
She emphasized that this is just an idea right now, saying there are no contracts, timeline, or purchased equipment just yet.
She noted that parking has changed a lot over the years and that the city has exceeded recommended parking capacity for years, saying various studies show on-street and lot parking capacity is at over 90% on most days, especially during peak times.
“Industry standards would be that you would move to a paid parking model at 85% parking capacity in those spots. So, we've exceeded that for many years,” she said.
She also says the 600 free spots in the parking hub — a parking garage on Grandview — would remain free, but noted the spots are underused.
“Stay, linger, spend as much time as you want in Olde Town. There's still free spots in the hub, but for those premium parking spots, it could encourage turnover, and it could help subsidize the costs," Kuroiwa said. “It’s usually utilized at about a 30% rate. So, there's always spots in the hub, but we have heard people are unaware of it."
The city has heard challenges with the parking hub around lighting and safety concerns, something Kuroiwa says the city is likely in the works to fixing already.
She said parking enforcement comes from the general fund, and money collected from paid parking would subsidize the cost of parking operations in the city, helping to put other general fund dollars back into the broader community.
“The idea would be that parking fees would be used to offset the cost of parking enforcement, which we already pay for today, and so then those, you know, general tax dollars could go to other priorities,” she said.
Kuroiwa says the city just closed their feedback survey last week, where they received over 4,000 responses regarding the proposal.
"Off the top, people have concerns about paying for parking. The most people's economic situation is, you know, kind of tight, and this feels like just one more thing to pay for," she said.
She shares businesses have shared concerns regarding revenue and possibly losing customers because of paid parking.
"We don't want them to lose customers either, so you know, we want Olde Town to be a vibrant place where people want to go, where businesses thrive, residents and visitors have a great time. So that has been a a top level concern," she said.
