The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Public outreach is key
By Mark Reaman
The Crested Butte Town Council has a paid parking installation plan in its back pocket and at least some councilmembers are willing to pull it out for next summer. But the council wants to monitor winter parking issues this year, especially since the ski area was acquired by Vail Resorts, to see if a year-round parking management plan is needed.
A final work session with parking consultant Interstate Parking of Colorado was held on Monday, December 17 to go over potential plans the group formed for Crested Butte after studies were conducted last August. Town planner Bob Nevins said in a memo to council that “While it appeared that residents, business owners, employees and even visitors did not believe that traffic congestion and parking were major issues that needed immediate attention, council thought it would be prudent to develop a comprehensive Draft Parking Management Program with specific parameters that the community could evaluate and provide comment.”
Interstate Parking owner Tony Janowiec admitted to the council that if the town decided to proceed with paid parking, the plan presented Monday would likely not be the plan ultimately implemented. But he emphasized that parking plans were extremely flexible and could be put in place relatively quickly.
“This is what a plan could look like,” he told the council as he ran through a PowerPoint presentation. “Town goals could be to restore residential parking to neighborhoods; enhance alternate side of the street parking in the winter through notifications instead of tickets and towing; support employees and local businesses through parking; and create a plan that is financially sustainable.”
His draft plan was basic and separated town into six zones plus the Elk Avenue business corridor. Nevins said the proposal favored town residents, area locals and employees “while placing greater financial responsibility on visitors who are more accustomed to paid parking and parking enforcement.”
Paid parking would be focused on Elk Avenue and the Four-way Stop with the ancillary parking lots and residential streets coming into play as well. Locals and employees could obtain annual parking permits at minimal or no cost. Payments could be handled through web reservations, payment kiosks or a mobile app. Parking “ambassadors” would be hired to help with the program.
In Janowiec’s example, parking at the Four-way on a weekday might cost $5 for the day. It could be $10 on a weekend day and free after 4 p.m. Parking on Elk Avenue could cost $1.50 for 30 minutes up to two hours and $3 for each 30 minutes after that, with a maximum of, say, $15. But he again emphasized that those prices were very preliminary suggestions.
He said annual revenues from such a plan could be in the neighborhood of $600,000. Start-up costs would be about $187,000. By year two he projected the town could be pocketing $155,000, which could be spent on things such as bus transportation.
Janowiec said if council decided to move ahead, the next steps would include evaluating the business and employee parking permit demand, developing an actual fee structure, determining how the ski area and intercept parking lots would work, and developing enforcement protocol, procedures and policy. He said the assumption was that parking during “shoulder seasons” and during major events that occupied Elk Avenue such as the Arts Festival would be free.
Crested Butte community development director Michael Yerman said implementation of the plan could be relatively quick but told council to anticipate a three to four month start-up period.
“The key is community outreach,” insisted Janowiec. “The more outreach, the easier it is to implement.” And he said that takes more than holding meetings; it means going to the businesses and door-to-door to residents to explain the parking program.
In response to a question from mayor Jim Schmidt, Janowiec said second homeowners could be granted or sold parking permits for town. “It is a philosophical question for the council. We can incorporate whatever you want in the plan.”
Yerman said the idea of the plan was basically “to get rid of the cars that come in and park all day on Elk Avenue, taking spaces away from visitors.”
“If you want to designate Elk Avenue for people who frequent businesses on Elk Avenue, then you shouldn’t sell permits for Elk Avenue. Let people go a half block off the main street and park for free,” said Yerman.
Councilman Paul Merck noted that businesses could also be allowed to validate customer parking or credit the parking back to the customer in a purchase. Those businesses then might pay the town a reduced parking rate for each validation.
Councilwoman Laura Mitchell wondered if businesses would feel they were then paying for parking twice, since most had to pay substantial parking fees when opening a business. Janowiec said in other places his company operates, most businesses understood the immediate parking situation versus long-term requirements and did not combine the two parking fees.
Councilman Kent Cowherd said he had heard from Elk Avenue restaurant owners that they liked the idea of the paid parking on Elk. “I don’t anticipate pushback from them on this idea,” he said.
“People make their decisions based on economics, so people can choose to park on Elk Avenue and it might be $15 for the day or they can park a little bit away for free,” said Janowiec. “But it is a choice.”
Schmidt mentioned that the post office was located on Elk and was a major draw. Janowiec said the post office had a parking lot that could be better enforced and loading zones could be placed nearby.
“There is an incredible amount of flexibility to establish parking zones and rules for those zones,” Janowiec said. “This is a very simple plan. There can be a whole host of various permits that are very understandable for different circumstances.” He said Breckenridge had more than 40 types of permits.
“So the old parking system was signage and parking meters. This one can be customized to the needs at the time and easily changed,” said councilman Chris Haver.
“I like the way it can be customized,” said Cowherd. “For me I would like to monitor the parking this winter but start putting this in place in March and implement it on June 1 for the summer.”
“There is definitely a learning curve the first few months,” said Janowiec. “But that can be addressed with outreach. Invest in that community outreach. Spend time on this with the public. It really matters.”
The council will discuss the idea again after the heart of the ski season has concluded, probably sometime in March.
