For those tired of circling for a parking spot downtown, be warned.
The sanctuary of a parking garage is seeming more like a distant dream, with city of Durango data suggesting that the need for a garage is not as urgent as some might think.
Most downtown blocks have an average availability of 20 percent, or two available spots if the block has 10 spots, which is the industry standard for parking, said Amber Blake, the city’s multimodal director.
Because a new garage would cost $15 million, the city likely would have to raise street parking rates to make parking in the garage more attractive and to raise the revenue needed to afford the garage’s debt service payments, Blake said.
Within the next few months, the cost of parking on the street will go up an average of 43 percent with the installation of high-tech meters that take payments from credit cards and smartphone apps. Blake said the target date for the new meters is Nov. 1.
The new meters also will go to places where they have not been before, taking away free parking from East Second Avenue between 13th and 14th streets, Blake said.
Commuters in search of free parking might want to try one of Durango’s best-kept secrets, a free, daytime parking lot on south East Second Avenue next to the Wyndham hotel. Cars could be towed after 6 p.m., however, to make room for the vehicles of hotel patrons. The city worked out a deal with the hotel as part of its development agreement.
Free parking also is available on 13th Street next to the Mason Center just east of East Third Avenue. If commuters park on the same side of the street as the Mason Center public recreation area, they won’t run afoul of angry residents, Blake said.
These, of course, are out-of-the-way spots, but officials argue that parking spots are available if people are willing to walk a few blocks.
“I don’t think there’s a parking problem,” said Tim Walsworth, executive director of the Business Improvement District. “I think at most times of day, there are spots available, but it’s probably not right in front of where you want to go.”
Commuters, however, have been willing to walk from East Third Avenue, the closest residential street to downtown with free parking. It’s considered the most congested street, averaging less than 10 percent parking vacancy per block during daytime business hours, Blake said.
East Third Avenue residents have long complained that they can’t get into their houses because of the parking congestion, but in some ways, parking is a good problem to have.
“If there was a million open spaces, it would mean nobody was downtown shopping or visiting our galleries or eating at our restaurants,” Walsworth said.
Walsworth was sympathetic to people working downtown but said some employers have come up with creative solutions, such as encouraging carpooling, walking and bicycling or buying parking passes for the lot at the Transit Center. Parking there is the equivalent of feeding a 10-hour meter, officials said.
The Transit Center’s parking lot is 48 percent full on average, Blake said.
“Go there,” she said.
The Transit Center is where the much-discussed parking garage would go. It is a couple of blocks from Main Avenue, too. So people would have to walk to get to most businesses.
There also has been talk about La Plata County building a parking garage at the old Vectra Bank site on East Second Avenue and 11th Street, but County Manager Joe Kerby said during a City Council workshop that current plans don’t include a vertical parking structure for the site.
Walking to a parking spot can be a problem for downtown employees who keep late hours and don’t want to park too far from their car, Walsworth acknowledged.
“Imagine you’re a shift worker at Olde Tymers from 3 to 10,” Walsworth said. “You get off work, and it’s dark. You have to walk by yourself to your vehicle. It can be scary. It might make you, the shift worker, park closer to where you work at. Problem is, that’s where you want your customers to park.”
If parking seems like a muddle, one man does what he can for good car-ma.
Alan Cuenca, proprietor of Put a Cork In It, 121 E. 10th St., feeds the meters of cars parked outside his wine boutique.
In place of the orange parking ticket, drivers get a note on the windshield telling them that Put a Cork In It extended their parking time.
“If you park in front of my shop, don’t expect me to feed your meter, but if I see somebody about to get ticketed, then I run out there and throw a coin in the meter,” Cuenca said. “Most of the parking attendants or meter maids are OK with it. Some of them have gotten a little grumpy with me. I’m just trying to save somebody the headache of getting a ticket.
“If I can spare somebody a ticket, they’re always super appreciative,” he said.
The unticketed might repay the favor by contributing money toward others’ parking meters. Others will patronize the shop.
“Sometimes, they come in and buy a bottle of wine or a six-pack of beer,” Cuenca said.
The city does have a problem when somebody pays for extra time for a car that already has been ticketed for an expired meter. The owner of the car then will dispute the ticket, forcing the city to produce the documentation, Blake said.
To be fair to parking attendants, they are not paid to ignore expired parking meters, Blake said.
Sometimes, parking attendants are so diligent that cars in the Strater Hotel’s unloading zone on Main Avenue will get ticketed while people are inside the hotel checking in.
“If it’s the height of tourist season, you can stand in line for 15 minutes,” said Michelle Thom, the Strater’s general manager.
Wanting to keep customers happy, particularly those who have spent a lot of money in Durango, the Strater Hotel sometimes will pay for the parking tickets of its patrons.
“We don’t want them to leave with a bad impression of Durango, so we will take it on for them,” Thom said.
Patrons are told to park in hotel parking lots, but sometimes they are from out of the country and don’t understand English.
Thom appreciates that parking attendants have jobs to do and likes how the city allocates parking revenue for transit projects. But she believes, too, that a parking garage might be the best solution to alleviate parking.
“I’m always for a parking garage,” she said.
jhaug@durangoherald.com
