News

Nov 05, 2024

City to explore weekend parking meter fees for downtown Durango - The Durango Herald

Durango Transit is exploring how much revenue it could make by implementing parking meter fees in the evenings and on weekends. The city has considered expanding parking fees before; the multimodal

Durango Transit is exploring how much revenue it could make by implementing parking meter fees in the evenings and on weekends.

The city has considered expanding parking fees before; the multimodal division has recommended it for at least a couple of years now. But the idea hasn’t been acted on, said Sarah Hill, transportation director.

The idea was brought up again earlier this month at a budget retreat by City Councilor Melissa Youssef, who appeared not to know the parking fee schedule when she asked if the city charges for parking on the weekends.

Parking fees are currently enforced from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday across Durango’s central business district.

“Free? All the time? OK. That’ll be interesting to explore,” Youssef said of the free weekend parking.

She said parking fees are normal in cities, taking note of Durango’s vigilant enforcement of meters during operating hours.

But residents are used to free parking on evenings and weekends. Charging during those periods would be a big change of pace, said Hill and Tim Walsworth, Durango Business Improvement District executive director, in interviews with The Durango Herald.

Walsworth said the benefits of expanded parking fees to transit services and the greater community would need to be clearly explained.

“I can imagine that there would be quite a bit of community input around that decision,” Hill said. “It would be a big change from what we’re currently doing.”

Evening and weekend fees drew fast “no’s” from some residents this week in downtown Durango.

“I just paid I don’t know how much to get an hour and 40 minutes; it was ridiculous. I’ve never paid that much,” said one Durango resident of 43 years, who declined to provide her name. “... I am not for that. I’m totally against it.”

She said she has met summer tourists who told her they were driving around downtown unable to find a space to park their trucks, and parking meters discourage people from going downtown.

Resident Glen Johnson said he, too, does not support evening and weekend parking fees because fees are already more expensive than they’ve ever been.

“Why not build a parking garage over by the transit center, and then you can do whatever you want to Main Street? Because all they’re going to do is screw it up,” he said.

He said if evening parking fees are implemented, downtown restaurants will suffer, because nobody will want to go downtown.

“The restaurants now can’t even afford to be open at lunch,” he said. “Take their dinner hour away from them, it’s not good for anybody.”

Resident Benjamin McCoy, who was downtown job hunting Tuesday, was not as opposed to weekend fees. He said the city and the public should find a balance in fees and rates with a consideration for Durango workers.

He said it is not unreasonable to charge parking fees on the weekends when people are going downtown for leisure activities, but rates should be reasonable, like $1 per hour.

“You have to listen to what the townspeople want, because they’re the ones that are building this (community) for you. ... This is a 50/50 situation, so I would say more communication is needed between both the city and the public,” he said.

The idea to begin charging for evening and weekend parking is a “sticky subject” that initially caused Walsworth some concern. He said residents are used to free parking downtown after 6 p.m. and all day on weekends.

“(Free parking is) a wonderful thing for commerce in downtown,” he said.

BID would not necessarily be opposed an expanded parking fee schedule, but it would need a clear understanding of what the community is getting by forfeiting free parking, he said.

“What are we getting as a community out of it? And I understand that the core of it is to fund transit. So is it going to prevent us from losing routes?” he said. “Is it going to add routes? Are we getting more buses where the buses come more frequently?”

Even though Durango’s parking meter rates are more reasonable than those in other cities, he said nobody likes paying for parking. But at the same time, fees serve the purpose in funding transit and multimodal operations.

“It would need to be really well thought out and discussed,” Walsworth said. “How do people pay, and rates? Are there times of year where you don't need to do that? And bottom line, what new services are we getting, or what existing services are we able to keep that are on the chopping block?”

Hill said the transportation department has not yet forecast the potential net revenues for evening and weekend parking fees, but that is something it is working to do. The numbers will be presented to City Council at a later date.

Durango Transit is on trajectory to drive off a financial cliff by 2026, which puts transit services at risk. Durango Chief Financial Officer Devon Schmidt said at a recent budget retreat that the transit division needs a new long-term funding source if it hopes to steer clear of going into the red.

Seventy-six percent of respondents to Durango Transit’s 2024 ridership survey said they are dependent on the city’s transit services to get around, whether they are headed to work, class, the grocery store or home again, Hill said. Seventy-one percent of respondents said they ride public transit daily.

She said Durango Transit’s fiscal cliff has loomed on the horizon for the last decade at least. The transit division has successfully obtained grants and alternative funding sources, and decided to roll ahead with expanded services.

It was a strategic move to offer the needed services while resources lasted so the community could see the benefit of a robust transportation system, she said.

She said Durango Transit relies heavily on grant funding, and there has been a significant backlog in the contracting of state grants, which makes the transit division’s financial woes appear even more dire.

The transit division received none of its awarded operating grants from the Colorado Department of Transportation in 2023, forcing it to rely solely on its fund balance. But this year, Hill said, CDOT worked with the city to make up for the absent 2023 operating grants by counting them as local matches to its 2024 operating grants.

“We are getting reimbursed, but on the report, it looks pretty remarkably low,” she said.

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