Downtown Parking Management Updates
The City of Fort Collins is proposing updates to the downtown parking system to make it financially sustainable, fair and easier to use.
This webpage is the official source of information from the City of Fort Collins about updates to the downtown parking system, along with other official City of Fort Collins communications channels.
Current Parking System Model
Today, downtown Fort Collins has an “upside down” system:
- The closest street parking is free with a 2-hour limit.
- Nearby City-owned garages cost $1 per hour, with the first hour free.
- With ongoing maintenance requirements, the three City garages operate at a financial loss.
This creates an imbalance. The most convenient spaces — directly in front of businesses — are free, while garages a short walk away require payment. Naturally, as a result of that upside down model, the on-street parking availability becomes overcrowded with users wanting to park close to their destination, and the paid parking revenue doesn't cover the cost of maintaining and operating the parking system as a whole.
As downtown continues to grow, this model isn't financially sustainable. It also limits turnover in high-demand areas, making it harder for customers to find convenient parking.
How Free Parking Works and How We Fund It
Free parking is never truly free — the cost is simply paid in less visible ways. When parking is offered at no charge, someone still pays to build it, maintain it and manage it. Those costs are often absorbed into local tax structures (higher rents, higher prices for goods and services), public subsidies or deferred maintenance.
A fully “free” model shifts costs broadly across the community. A user-paid model aligns costs more directly with usage and can reduce pressure on general tax revenues.
Fort Collins currently operates with free on-street parking and a user-paid model in its parking garages, charging only those who use garage parking. But due to the “upside down” model of the paid parking system, parking revenue from the City’s parking garages isn’t fully funding the City’s parking system.
Based on feedback from the community as well as the City’s consultants, the City is recommending a variety of changes to its parking system, including implementing paid on-street parking.
What’s Changing: Near-Team
Anticipated near-term changes include:
Beginning March 23, 2026: Moving to six day per week, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. enforcement of on-street parking.
Beginning Sept. 1, 2026, pending City Manager's approval: Increasing fines for parking violations
Beginning Sept. 1, 2026, pending City Manager's approval: Removing the City’s current “Courtesy Notice” for first-time violations, implementing a fine
Increasing options for downtown parking permits, including employee parking permits for employees of downtown businesses
Installing better parking enforcement mechanisms in the City’s parking garages
A managed parking system is essential to supporting a thriving downtown. The City is working with all stakeholders in downtown Fort Collins to ensure the solutions implemented are the best possible solutions for everyone.
What’s Changing: Long-Term
A map of the City’s proposed updates to downtown parking, including a new proposed paid parking zone shown in purple. All parking, including street, lot and garage parking, inside the purple zone would have an associated fee.
More specific details about the City’s proposed parking updates will be provided following additional meetings with City Council. Any expansion of paid parking downtown as a part of these updates is expected to be implemented in 2027 or 2028.
What We Heard From the Community
Since October 2025, the City has hosted Open House events, public engagement tables in Old Town Square, focused engagement events with downtown businesses and stakeholders, and online engagement on this webpage.
Common themes we heard:
Concern about impacts to small businesses
Concern about employee parking
Questions about enforcement practices
Questions about financial transparency
Interest in fair pricing and turnover
Concern about long-term infrastructure costs
The final recommendation reflects this feedback, including updates to enforcement practices, technology improvements and financial transparency.
FAQs
We've answered our most frequently asked questions (FAQs) from the community in the Project Updates section below (see: FAQs) with detailed feedback.
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From the tone of this one sided presentation, I am convinced tour logic would transfer all city functions to user fees, which, like parking, run at a deficit. How much of a deficit can we reduce by charging users for public safety? For fire protection? The downtown is the major reason why we moved to FoCo and you are intent on destroying it. Perhaps by doing so you intend to solve the population growth you see as such a burden.
Our downtown during the day is very vibrant with shoppers. Having paid parking on the street would not guarantee more and easier parking or more people choosing to enjoy downtown. How about if we had the 2-hour parking free during the day till 5, for people who want to shop, drop things off quickly, go to the park for a bit with the kids, enjoy the library, whatever ...and then at night time when people might want to have dinner or longer time in a bar that's when the parking on the street becomes paid for longer hours?
Excellent! End the communist parking regime! Please bundle this with ending the unfunded mandate for minimum parking citywide (repeal city code 5.9.1(k)). For those that want free, 2-hour parking, the map shows it within 1 or 2 blocks of all of the proposed areas. This proposal seems to just affect the places I usually have to drive past to get a parking spot outside of anyway.
Charging for on street parking is a good idea and long overdue. I'd love for the city to focus on this part of Old Town as a pedestrian area!
Hi there!
I am a resident of Fort Collins and I want to say I strongly oppose paid street parking. One of my favorite things about the city is the affordable ability to access old town shops and support local businesses. I fear I would have to spend less time in old town if paid parking was required. I love this city and would love for it to remain accessible.
Thank you for your consideration!
2-hour parking makes Old Town feel more accessible to everyone. It relieves the stress of needing to make a payment on an app or at a kiosk, especially for short trips. We have a plethora of paid parking options nearby, we don’t need more paid parking.
Keep it simple. We don't need to make it complicated to park a car. There are already paid parking garages if people are okay with that, for the street parking stick with free parking. I fear you are looking at the revenue you can generate with the parking fees and not looking at the barrier this adds to utilize old town businesses which will hurt the businesses and therefore drop the city's tax revenue. Keep it simple, don't overthink this!
I’m opposed to parking fees in old town. Please leave it as is so our senior citizens/elderly parents can easily come and go without being afraid of parking apps/payment scamming or suffering from reduced mobility that makes getting to centralized meters/back to cars on time difficult. You have other options such as additional fees on hotels/tourism while making the city work for its residents. You work for the residents, please keep that in mind as you find a better solution.
This impacts independent small business...we already have enough pressure for people to shop at big box stores...ENOUGH!!! MY TAXES PAY FOR THE STREETS...WHICH I AM HAPPY TO DO....keep your hands off people's hopes and choices.
Strongly oppose the idea of paid parking for downtown FoCo. It is a traditional practice to allow the public free access to local businesses.
This proposal does nothing to support our Small Business Owners or the Locals who shop downtown to support friends and neighbors. This is not a community based proposition.
Free downtown parking makes it easy to patron all the local business concentrated in Old Town instead of the chain business down near where I live. Removing 2 hr free parking will drive customers like me to do more business at these larger franchises that can afford their own parking lots instead of local small businesses that are the lifeblood of what makes Fort Collins, Fort Collins, in all its unique charm
This is a step you can’t come back from. Do not do this.
Keep old town parking free in fort.Collins!!!
If this reduces congestion and incentivizes walking and biking, I'm all for it. Car Culture is costly, and there is no reason we should be able to store these big hunks of metal on prime real estate for free. I just hope payment is frictionless; the app download required in many locales is cumbersome.
see The High Cost of Free Parking by Donald Shoup
Charging for parking will devastate our old town culture and small businesses
The weeekend is the only day of the week where you can park and walk around to enjoy all of old town without worrying about moving your car every 2 hours. Rent is already too expensive for business owners in old town and you all expect this hit to their business to help??? In what world does making parking paid by the hour where people with more money benefit and the people who can’t afford an extra 16$ to work a 8 hour shift down here help? It doesn’t. It’s going to impact our downtown negatively. Moreover maybe you should audit your job sites and see the inefficiencies going on in work crews. 6 guys standing around while 1 or 2 are working. Maybe less of our money would be wasted. You also hire contractors that leave our streets uneven and giant potholes where manholes are and mess up the alignment of our vehicles. This charge is purely greed so you can draw even more money out of residents already having a financially hard time.
Please leave 2-hour parking free to all. I would make far fewer trips downtown if I had to pay for parking each time. Some of us are not physically disabled but still have mobility issues, such as being pregnant or needing stroller access, and looking for free parking spots farther afield will mean that we are less able to access downtown. As it stands, I can usually find free parking downtown when I need it, within a couple blocks of my destination. If I have to pay to park in that radius, I will have less money to spend at local businesses.
If downtown congestion is an issue, I’d be delighted to take a bus if the routes and frequency were adequate. Currently buses from my area to downtown do not run often enough to allow for spontaneous Old Town trips.
I have worked in Old Town for the past 16 years and have witnessed its incredible revitalization. The City’s efforts to create a welcoming, vibrant, and beautiful downtown have made it a destination that residents and visitors genuinely enjoy. This success has benefited local businesses and increased economic activity and revenue for the City.
I believe implementing paid parking downtown would be short-sighted. Accessibility and convenience are major reasons people choose to visit Old Town. Paid parking could discourage visitors, reduce foot traffic, and negatively impact the businesses that rely on consistent customer volume.
While paid parking may generate short-term revenue, the long-term effects could hurt downtown businesses, reduce activity, and ultimately decrease City revenue. Old Town’s success has been built on being inviting and accessible, and I encourage the City to continue supporting that approach.
No city parking!
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