Despite a decrease in applications for the bump-out program this year, city officials and businesses say the initiative is still going strong after the dismantling of the structures last week.

The city of Durango’s bump-out program started in 2020 as a way to accommodate social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, but more recently its been seen as a way to expand popular downtown business’ capacity, especially for restaurants.

However, the program has been met with some criticism regarding the number of parking spots the program has taken up and the bump-outs’ appearance in downtown Durango.

This led the city to implement a fee structure and a design standard for the structures this past year.

The number of bump-outs decreased from 28 last year to 11 this year.

The city charged a flat rate of $6.30 per square-foot of space that extends into the public right of way. The fee was implemented this year as a way to make up for lost parking meter revenue that results from bump-outs taking up parking spots on Main Avenue.

In April, the city estimated it lost about $44,000 in parking meter revenue last year with 28 bump-outs. City of Durango Economic Opportunity Manager Tommy Crosby estimated in April that the loss in parking revenue came out to be about $23,310 this year.

The city collected a total of $29,301 in fees from the program this year.

“From the date that both were installed to when they were commissioned last week, we calculated every day that parking meter revenue was going to be foregone,” he said. “We based our pop-out fee, or per square foot fee, exactly on that parking meter revenue.”

Bump-out fees will go to the city’s transportation department, community development department and the economic opportunity division.

Also, new design guidelines also required that bump-outs can no longer have signage attached to them because signs can block the line of sight for other businesses. It also mandated that tents and umbrellas used in bump-outs could no longer use logos.

“The program went quite well. I would attribute that to our code compliance and inspection staff member, Chris Simpson,” Crosby said. “He did a really great job this year of making an effort to be on site, introduce himself to the folks constructing the bump-outs, and to the business owners on the front end, to make sure that they are familiar with our design guidelines.”

Crosby can’t recall any negative feedback he received about the appearance of the bump-outs this year, which had previously been a point of contention.

Crosby said that one of the most promising aspects of this year’s program was the pedlet on the west side of the 700 block of Main Avenue. The pedlet, built by MODSTREET, allowed restaurants to place outdoor seating next to their buildings as opposed to on Main Avenue. The pedlet allowed extra room for pedestrians to go around the bistro-style seating for restaurants like Switchback and Fired Up Pizzeria.

“That tended to be a part of Main where we would, get complaints or negative feedback around the appearance of main and the sense of congestion on Main,” Crosby said.

The wider sidewalk made it easier on restaurant staff members who no longer had to cross a crowded sidewalk to deliver food and drinks to customers, Crosby said.

A proponent of the bump-out program, Business Improvement District Executive Director Tim Walsworth said it remains to be seen what the turnout will be next year.

“I would expect it to be a comparable number when we start this again next year. But that's a guess, at this point,” Walsworth said.

He added that the pedlet concept was interesting to evaluate this year. He said it still took away parking spots, but based on the “eye-test” the concept worked well for the three businesses impacted.

Crosby said he hasn’t noticed any sort of drop-off in usage from the businesses that did have the structure this year. He said depending on business hours, it can appear as if the bump-outs aren’t being used, but it’s actually because the business isn’t open.

“I think it was mostly just my observation of being a being a resident and walking up and down Main and seeing them seemingly as full as previous years,” he said.

Walsworth said while the bump-out program tends to favor restaurants, retail establishments such as Maria’s Bookshop also experience quite a bit of usage from them.

tbrown@durangoherald.com