The city of Durango has launched a multi-month study to identify possible solutions to one of the city’s most vexing problems: downtown parking.

Parking has been a concern for businesses and residents for decades. Some say there aren’t enough spaces in downtown Durango. Others say the city is too vigilant about parking enforcement, which drives away potential shoppers. And some say there is no parking problem; rather, there’s an unrealistic expectation that people should be able to park in front of whatever business they want to access.

A number of solutions have been proposed and considered over the years, including: raising the rate of parking meters, which might convince drivers to park off Main Avenue or use public parking lots; doing away with parking meters, which would allow tourists and locals to shop without the ever-present fear of getting a ticket; building a parking garage, which would help alleviate parking congestion in the downtown; or getting rid of parking all together on Main Avenue and turning the historic thoroughfare into a pedestrian mall, like Boulder’s Pearl Street.

The new study is part of Durango’s Downtown’s Next Step project. The project has garnered support from some residents because it proposes wider room for foot and bicycle traffic and the ability to close sections of Main Avenue for town events and festivals. But the project has also drawn concern from some residents and business owners who fear the city’s current favored design, which reduced the number of parking spaces, could limit access to downtown businesses for those used to driving and parking.

The study seeks to uncover what drives parking habits on Main Avenue and to inform the city of solutions or plans it can adopt into the Downtown’s Next Step project to accommodate residents, tourists, employees and business owners.

Wade Moore, parking manager for Durango Transit, said the study is intended to shed light on whether downtown meter rates should be increased, if public transit services should be bolstered, if cost incentives for carpooling are feasible, if a parking garage or structure would help, among other solutions.

A survey that launched in July but has since closed marked the first phase of the parking study. It asked residents if they value price or convenience more when it comes to parking – are they willing to walk a block or two for a cheaper price?

Moore said people tend to prioritize parking spaces by convenience and safety. The first parking space someone will take is the closest one available to where they want to go.

And, people generally prefer surface lots in open air because it is easy to see what’s going on around them. Parking structures and garages are not ideal because it is uncertain who may be inside – in other words, it is a safety concern for some people, he said.

Caprice Fox, owner of Create Art and Tea at 1015 Main Ave., said she’s indifferent to the idea of a parking garage. As long as it isn’t “ugly” or 10-stories tall, she wouldn’t mind one. But she is against eliminating all traffic and parking on Main Avenue.

“It’s hard for tourists always (paying) quarters, and credit cards sometimes don’t work on the meters,” she said. “I’ve had tourists say, ‘I’ll never come back here again,’ because they got a ticket and the tickets are so high. I think the big complaint is that the tickets went up so high and a tourist has to pay 25 bucks. I didn’t understand it.”

Melissa Stein, owner of Second Time Around at 1139 Main Ave., said her business occasionally competes with parking meters for her customers’ attention.

“It’s tricky,” she said. “Sometimes people rush out for the dang meter.”

Moore said he’s been asked by residents why the city hasn’t installed a parking garage at the Transit Center, which offers parking permits for $30 a month or $72 for three months.

The permits are a “screamin’ deal,” he said. But drive by it on any given day and one will likely see that it’s 70% empty.

He’s even seen cars parked in metered spaces on Main Avenue with a permit for the Transit Center in their window. More evidence people prefer convenience above all else. He said many of those cars belong to employees of local businesses.

“What have they done? They’ve (taken) the customers’ parking spaces,” he said. “So employees are keeping the customers of the businesses from parking close to the businesses.”

To Moore, that’s a sign downtown parking meter fees aren’t priced high enough.

“The people who are coming to visit town, they stick their credit card in, they punch it up to the maximum amount, they hit OK,” he said. “They don’t even look at the price.”

Tourists aren’t “price sensitive” to parking meter fees. But at current rates, neither are workers who are at the meters every day. Employees could get a better deal on parking fees if they used permit parking at the Transit Center. But that’s not what’s happening, he said.

“The people working those stores and restaurants should be parking at the transit center and walking to work,” he said. “But it doesn’t seem to work that way until you price it accordingly.”

Moore said studies have shown the “perfect” amount of parking is to have 10% to 15% of spaces available. If meter or ticket fees are priced correctly, there should always be at least a few spaces available on every block.

Maintaining that balance not only ensures parking is available if someone needs it, but it also makes the town look healthy, he said.

“The town looks vital because it’s got a lot of people in it. A lot of parking is used,” he said. “So it looks like things are happening and it has vitality. But you don’t have to go around the block to find a parking space. That’s what you want.”

The city of Durango has produced a parking guide map available at durangoparking.com that lays out where drivers can find the best parking deals downtown.

The most expensive parking spaces are located along Main and East Second avenues from Fifth Street through 11th Street. They have three-hour time limits and cost $1 per hour.

North of Buckley Park and 13th Street offer hourly rates of 50 cents with a 10-hour time cap.

Most parking on Narrow Gauge Avenue costs 75 cents per hour with a 10-hour cap, and most parking west of Narrow Gauge Avenue is 50 cents with a 10-hour cap.

In 2021, parking meter fees generated $882,803 for the city, according to the transportation budget. Parking cards that can be loaded with money and swiped at meters like credit cards generated an additional $57,137.

That same year, parking officers issued 16,874 citations for expired meters, which made up 73% of all parking violations and resulted in $424,325 in fines starting at $25 per citation, according to a parking violation summary report from the city.

The next most frequent citation issued last year was for failure to display current vehicle registration, with 2,857 citations totaling $71,525 in fines.

In addition to expired meter citations, the parking division also issued tickets for missing or not visible registrations, parking in handicap or commercial zones, parking in snow routes or red zones, boot fees and other citations that generated $118,562 in fines last year. Those “other” citations also include 58 tickets for idling vehicles.

Even with this revenue, the parking division and Durango Transit aren’t self-sustaining. Moore said he doesn’t know of a single transit division that can financially support itself without the help of state and federal grants. In 2021, Durango Transit was in the red by $203,648.

cburney@durangoherald.com