Downtown Parking Management Updates

Hi, I am a small business owner in the proposed pay of parking area. I am a small service based office, a massage and yoga space, and clients having to pay to come to my office will hurt my business. Another thing is, I do not park all day near my office but I do have to park there for trips bringing laundry (2x a week) and other supplies in and out of my car. I don't want to have to pay to bring necessary large items into my office. Please reconsider having a paid parking. Small businesses are already feeling a negative impact from the current economy and this will make things worse for us.

Keep foco free parking

We need to keep parking downtown easy for people to pop into shops. Without it, there's a barrier to people being able to access shops downtown for quick visits and makes it so that they will only come downtown if they have a chunk of time to spend. If there's concern about increasing turnover, the current 2 hour time limit could be reduced to 1 hour in some key spots but there's no reason to eliminate free short-term parking.

Smart phone apps pose a significant barrier for senior citizens who rely on flip phones or people who have no credit card. Let's keep old town accessible for all residents. I am concerned about people hogging spots by extending their time through the app. This will surely impact the turn over of available spots, making shopping in old town more frustrating. Let's also keep our hard earned dollars in town and not send a portion of it to 3rd party vendors like Park Mobile. The big city parking model is not for Fort Collins. We choose to live here because of little things like free two-hour parking in old town.

I'm a multigenerational colorado Native and was born here in Fort Collins. Please don't change the unique culture and welcoming atmosphere of our city! I rarely go to Boulder because it's so expensive and you have to pay to park everywhere! It's a stressful place to visit! We don't want to be like boulder. Please keep all parking free! We love our city and as costs of living rise, we need every opportunity not to have to spend on more than we can afford. Old Town is expensive already, adding paid parking only deters us from visiting as often. We go to a coffee shop downtown almost once a week. Having to pay for parking will cause us to frequent coffee shops and restaurants outside of old town more frequently. I'm less likely to casually come downtown to walk the streets and venture into shops, and buy something I wasn't necessarily looking for, if I have to pay for parking. Might as well just go to target or Front Range Village.

It appears to me that there are more restaurants outside of this paid parking downtown area than in. And with free parking.

Paid parking means the city wants to tax us to come downtown so we can spend money and be taxed again.

Free parking in Fort Collins supports local businesses, encourages downtown foot traffic, and keeps the area accessible to residents and visitors alike. Introducing paid parking risks discouraging short visits, reducing customer turnover for small businesses, and shifting congestion into nearby neighborhoods. Fort Collins thrives on its welcoming, community-oriented atmosphere—free parking is a small but meaningful part of that experience. Maintaining it helps sustain economic vitality without adding friction for the people who live, work, and spend time here.

The entire reason I moved to Fort Collins was to live close enough to Old Town to walk. It makes no sense to me for Whedbee street between oak and mulberry to be a Paid Permit parking for residences that daily utilize old town by FOOT and BIKE.

Walker Consultants made comparisons to cities all over the country with much larger populations justifying why we should go with downtown Paid Parking. In their final Draft (3/23), they concluded spillover parking in surrounding residential blocks would be likely to increase in frequency and severity with paid parking implementation. Paid Parking would harm our wonderful downtown businesses, as well as surrounding neighborhoods. Our City Leaders should stop wasting time and scarce resources on a project that residents do not want. 9,000 petition signatures thus far supporting our downtown small businesses!

Free downtown street parking makes FoCo a welcoming, user friendly, remarkable city center. Don't change such a good thing, please!!

Keeping downtown desirable for patrons is important. Not only are shops and restaurants affected, businesses providing services downtown are impacted as well. In addition, building owners will be affected; tenants will have less interest in locating downtown. Meters going in on main streets will move the cars to other streets so those living and working nearby bear the burden of this change.

City Council is considering useing “The Way-Back Machine” to go back to 1978 when parking meters had driven shoppers out of Old Town stores, they could park for free at stores outside of OldTown. Council Members should go to the Museum of Discovery photo archives and look at the pictures of Collage Avenue and the empty storefronts. Old Town (The Choice City) had chosen to shop somewhere else where they were not nickeled and dimmed for parking on taxpayer owned “City Streets”. Shoppers voted with their feet. They did not at that time, have Amazon and EBay. But, now we do!
It is not the citizens problem that past City Council Members voted to sell bonds to build 3 parking garages which shoppers try to avoid. Charge $2.00 per hour to park and shop in Old Town and step back to avoid being trampled by the shoppers (and also the merchants renting space in Old Town buildings) who will flee to Prospect and Harmony, as soon as their lease renewal comes up.

I think paid street parking is a terrible idea. It will create a perceived barrier to people going to enjoy Old Town. This has the potential to harm local businesses and reduce the vibrancy of the area. I am all in favor for better enforcement of the current rules and actually enforcing the charge for garage space. Yes, the parking on the streets is often full in the evenings, but in my opinion as a frequent Old Town visitor is that this isn't a bad thing, it means that the community is enjoying the heart of our city. And the parking is often never full during non peak hours so charging then would just be a negative with no upside.

I wouldn't be opposed to seeing the cost structures for the streets and the garages flip, first hour free on the streets then a charge and no charge in the garages, but that raises new issues with enforcement, upkeep, etc. I think in light of the situation, I am in favor of the near term changes, but opposed to the long term paid parking zone idea.

Will an outside vendor be brought in to manage the paid parking? Will they be paid? Will the scheme generate any revenue or like other cities simply fund its own existence? If this scheme does not meet goals can it be easily abandoned? Are vendors allowed in working sessions when citizens are not?

We frequently visit downtown to visit one or two stores to purchase things, often during weekdays during day we very rarely are not able to find a parking street new the businesses. When we come down for longer times, especially for evening meals, we are understand that we may need to park in the garages as downtown is often much busier.

Considering Parking Services has funding issues I was amazed to learn that nearly three-quarters of tickets were issued as warnings and vehicles only requiring one person were not being used. The only solution was to make shopping more expensive and inconvenient especially for people who are have difficulties walking.

The proposed solution doesn't consider loss of business to downtown stores, increased inconvenience for much of the for shoppers, and increasing Parking Services efficiency.

Please do not remove the free 2-hour free street parking.

i think getting rid of free 2 hour parking in Old Town is a bad idea, and the small businesses that exist in the area will suffer because of this along with the overall enjoyment of people visiting and dwelling within our fine town. the world is falling apart as we speak, why can’t we preserve the small pleasures.

I work in the the sustainability field, and I have a graduate degree in urban sustainability, specifically. Due to my background, I am well aware of the arguments in favor of paid parking -- the high cost of parking space maintenance and the need to push users toward pedestrian and transit options for environmental reasons, chief among them. However, I think in the city's current (and even planned) context, these arguments fall short on the points of fairness and equity. The neighborhoods in walking/biking distance of Old Town are generally some of the most expensive in Fort Collins, and despite the genuine efforts of the city and and its transportation staff, public transit options to reach Old Town remain very limited (by frequency and location) for most residents. I oppose imposing paid parking in Old Town because it chills access for residents for whom the costs -- either of nearby housing or regular parking fees -- are a true disincentive. In short, please don't make us Boulder.

I am strongly opposed to the new paid on-street parking plan. I feel that it is discriminatory towards elderly patrons who cannot park long distances away from the shops they want to visit and who cannot readily navigate complicated parking apps that require significant input before the session begins. It will also be very negative for the small businesses that rely on walk-in traffic or whose items are low in price and therefore are being taxed for both sales and for parking.

I am against the paid parking initiative. My primary concerns are the initial investment that won't be recouped for at least five years as well as the fact that paid parking will discourage visitors to our thriving Old Town shops and restaurants. I dislike going to downtown Boulder due to its paid parking.
We should be focusing on shoring up the current system, promoting the use of the garages if there are so many spaces there, and getting rid of warning tickets.