Goldenite Dr. Chris Gallup told city council that within one week he saw a number of cars parked on his street for a long period of time with out-of-state license plates.
The chemotherapy he is receiving makes it difficult to navigate the city by foot and he depends on being able to park his car close to his home.
“It’s exhausting to walk a block with groceries when there’s no parking,” Gallup said.
Parking in downtown Golden has been a hot topic for at least the past two years, said Steve Glueck, the city’s community and economic development director.
So the City of Golden has made resolving the parking dilemma a top priority.
“This is pretty important,” Glueck said. “Doing it right is important to the community.”
After three public comment sessions — the last at the July 14 city council meeting — Golden City Council plans to review a draft resolution on July 28 that authorizes the development and implementation of a downtown parking system.
The parking system, as currently proposed, would keep all streets posted as two-hour parking and certain lots with three-hour parking as free for downtown visitors. Visitors who need more time would be able to park in designated areas by paying a daily parking fee at a kiosk or via a smart phone app. Downtown employees and residents would be eligible for low- or modest-cost license plate-based parking permits that would allow the user to park all day on streets not posted as two-hour parking, as well as in the city parking structures.
However, city councilors did voice some concernswith the proposal at the July 14 meeting.
For example, Councilor Laura Weinberg worries the parking zones are overly complicated and Mayor Pro Tem Joe Behm brought up the cost of purchasing the kiosks. Councilors also discussed whether the city has enough employees to efficiently monitor a new parking system and whether it would be more visitor friendly to have one time allotment throughout downtown.
The idea of creating an ad hoc parking group — which would include a Colorado School of Mines student, a Mines staff member, Golden community members and downtown merchants — was also discussed among council.
One contributing factor to the shortage of downtown parking is thought to be because of Mines’ students, Glueck said. The school handles about 80 to 90 percent of its parking needs on campus, however, “spillover” exists.
But t’s not a matter of blame, Glueck said, noting the city and school have worked well to handle the issue.
The city also has considered the opinions of Golden’s Downtown Merchants Association, which wants three-hour free parking in some areas to give customers sufficient time to shop and dine.
During the meetings, and through emails to the city, concerned residents and business owners have brought up everything from diligent enforcement of parking regulations to the problem of people looking for spots in nearby residential areas where they can park for free.
Emmy Dimitroff, who attended the July 14 meeting, has lived in Golden for more than 20 years, including the downtown area
“You can imagine when this wasn’t a problem,” she told counicl. But “the burden of the parking issue has become overwhelming and, quite frankly, unfair.”
