Colorado Springs prepares final draft of new parking & curbside management plan; public input sought

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — Citizens have until the end of April to submit feedback on the city's new plan to better manage and enforce parking and curbside use; after that, the plan gradually becomes effective over the next four to five years.

The plan will affect the city's two areas of largest parking demand — downtown and Old Colorado City (OCC).

Officials began working on the plan late last summer by soliciting opinions from residents, business owners and other stakeholders, and comparing the city's parking and curbside practices to cities of similar size.

Richard Mulledy, the city's public works director, said that those practices have changed and need improving with more people moving to, dining in and seeking entertainment in downtown and OCC.

The most noteworthy change is regarding curbside management; particularly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of curbsides have expanded to include scooter parking, unloading of business supplies, pickup of restaurant food orders and starting points for ride-sharing services.

"One of the biggest comments we've heard is that we need more of that," Mulledy said.

One facet of the plan is already in place: Hours for city parking meters have been reduced from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m., to 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.

That's the number-one thing that we saw, actually were parking hours," he explained. "We've really got that, we've narrowed those parking hours and made them a little shorter, which I think has really helped -- especially in the later hours."

The plan establishes four guiding principles: Actively managing the curbside; increasing off-street parking productivity; embracing and leveraging technology; and creating a comprehensive customer experience.

A set of four recommended strategies in the final draft plan sets forth between 3-5 tactics for each strategy.

Mulledy said that another possible change from the plan is a switch to more "dynamic" parking, which would increase fees as demand increases.

"But for now, we don't see a need to increase fees," he said. "We feel that our fees are among the most reasonable in the country."

Another future possibility is to increase parking enforcement across town, not just in the two targeted areas — such as for vehicles that park too long on streets or in public places, have expired tags, etc.

To see the plan and submit feedback, visit: http://coloradosprings.gov/2024ParkingPlan.