Downtown Parking Management Updates

If Fort Collins is going to charge for parking downtown, I’ll choose to shop and dine elsewhere.

No, this is a horrible idea especially in this economy. What it will do is it will drive business away from downtown. People will go to shopping centers where it's free to park. And you will lose businesses that move to those locations as well. Instead why don't you add an incentive to park in the garage. Don't make this a pain point for your residents who are looking for really from the stress of everyday life or needing to make a quick stop to get something unique as a gift for a friend or family member. Make the parking garages a more attractive option. Not by creating pain with the on-street parking but by adding benefit to the garage parking in ways that are creative and fun use the money you would have spent installing meters to instead offer bonuses available in the stores of downtown if you park in the garage.

2 hour free parking! Don't charge!

Typical ft.collins asking for more money out of people, if they dont get it they will raise your property taxes again. Ft.collins is just big H.O.A think about, they charge you for every little thing. Trash, extra car,

I stopped using the parking garages when downtown businesses stopped validating. Having to pay to park will keep my money out of old town.

After reading everyone's questions/answers and these comments below, I had a thought. If everyone is right and paid-parking in downtown will deter so many people from clogging up the streets and shops and restaurants, then I am now REALLY looking forward to this change. We avoid downtown like the plaque most of the year because of how hard it is to get in a restaurant or find parking.

I am one of the few dissenters. I have always thought our parking system was upside down. The garages should be free and the on-street spaces should be pay parking just like in other cities (Breck, Estes Park, etc.). It just makes sense. And neither of those 2 cities has fewer visitors because of it. I fully support this change and think it's WAY past time. Oh, and please put in a lot more handicapped spots while you're at it. My husband was on crutches all summer and we couldn't find a handicapped parking spot for nothing.

If the city starts charging to park in old town I and all the people i have talked to about this will stop patronizing the businesses in old town. Three words of advice. Don't Do It !!

Removed by moderator.

Charging citizens to park is such a terrible "answer". Just terrible, and at a time where literally everything is becoming so expensive. Really?

I am saddened that I will no longer be able to go to the library, access city services, attend community events, or go to the hardware store because of the cost and hassle of the proposed parking plan.
Such a tragic and tone-deaf change. Shouldn’t FC be better than other towns instead of trying to copy them?

People don’t use the parking garages because they are unsafe & creepy.

Please leave street parking free in Old Town. I live near Old Town and visit very often. Having to pay for parking would discourage me visiting. Many of my visits to Old Town businesses are only 15 or 20 minutes. I would be frustrated to pay for such a short stay or having to go to one of the parking garages, which would mean more time walking to and from than my time at the business.
Please please leave street parking free.

I believe that this will hurt businesses and bar a lot of people from access to old town, which is not what Fort Collins is about.
If we fix, expand, and extend bus routes to allow more people to come in on a bus then this would be a lot more doable. This is harmful to the community.

I don't imagine there's a single city this size in the entire country that doesn't have paid street parking in its most dense area, i.e. downtown. My wife and I don't come to Old Town (to spend money) anyway, because all of the illegal car and truck muffler noise is such a constant nuisance.

Please don't do paid on-street parking. If you engage the public every day, as I do, it's undeniable it will negatively affect Old Town. People flat-out say they'll come to old town less! It will affect your sales tax revenue and obviously the sales of the small businesses. It seems a like your discriminating against small businesses, find a way to get your money from chains and big business! They're the ones, and online, who will benefit from paid in-street parking downtown. Also, the College Avenue construction next year will already hurt traffic downtown. Please listen to the stakeholders and residents of Old Town!

We typically park in the garage at Laport and Mason or sometimes in the Firehouse Alley garage. It woudl be really great if there were more EV charging stations. I know more were added to the LAport and Mason garage but they look like special use only. Even if they were in the upper levels. It wold also be excllenet is more attention was paid to enforcing compact car spot rules as it is very frequent that people park extended cab full size pickups and other long vehicles in the spots. Specifically, the end spots making it dangerous to drive through the garage. Maybe they can have their own dedicated spots higher up in the garage to prevent such dangers.

I generally am supportive of changes the city implements, but paid parking is a terrible idea. I regularly go to old town for free events and then purchase something while walking around. However, the monetary exchange is optional and having to pay for parking completely deincentives me to go. I will absolutely be parking in a neighborhood, as I’m sure others will-much to everyone’s annoyance, and walking in. This change is so tone deaf in this economy, especially with the unreliability of Transfort’s ever shifting routes/schedules and they just decreased services a few weeks ago (plus there isn’t a single bus stop within 2 miles of my house and your staff just suggested I drive to a max station which is so dumb for many reasons but I’m running out characters), and your refusal to consider free parking garages when other cities do it and you insist you want greater use from the garages. I was let down by staff’s inability to answer how much this will cost and where the money is going.

Hi! My name is andrew lipps, I moved to Fort Collins in February with my pregnant wife. We had been living in Breckenridge for the last 8 years, and were looking forward to living in Fort Collins. We can’t wait to move out of Fort Collins, and honestly the gosh darn parking citations are one of the reasons we’re getting out of this town.

I understand that you need to keep people in line, parking demand is on the rise. I have lived in college towns before, and the brutal eagerness to boot and fine from your city is abhorrent and appalling. You don’t miss a beat, never miss an opportunity to fine us and boot and tow our cars mercilessly.
My wife is fighting to get her car back because it was towed from the front of our house after being left for less than a week. I had a high tech sucker boot put on my windshield for having expired tags for ONE DAY.

You have driven us from your town with your ruthless greedy cash grabbing. You are technically correct, but you lack humanity.

As a small business owner we should be reducing any and all barriers to shopping in Old Town. Old Town is the heart of Fort Collins. We are truly unique which is why Fort Collins has been voted best place to live, work, and play over the years. With rising rents, NNN, and online competition when locally owned small business fails we will be replaced by corporate America and Fort Collins will be like everywhere else. No On-Street Paid Parking!

2hr parking should not be changed into pay to park. This is already a strain on staff for downtown businesses having to move their cars, or park further away just to work their shifts. Charging employees to park is inhumane and greedy. Additionally one of the best parts of downtown is NOT having to pay to park. Changing these parking parameters will deter business and make shoppers less likely to linger. Additionally this instantely makes downtown less accessible for low income and students (which is a MAJORITY) of the shoppers. I say this as a local of Fort Collins for over 26 years and a downtown business employee for the past six. You will deter people. Do not do this.