Hotchkiss Considers Friendly Ways of Getting Business Owners and Employees to Not Take Up Bridge Street Core Parking

Hotchkiss Considers Friendly Ways of Getting Business Owners and Employees to Not Take Up Bridge Street Core Parking

Report and analysis by Thomas Wills

At the July 9, Hotchkiss Town Council meeting, Tom Wills (this reporter), at the request of several downtown merchants, brought up the issues regarding time limits on Bridge Street parking. A memo he distributed included excerpts from a portion of the Town code, which was rewritten by Marshal Dan Miller early in the 2000’s. Regarding time limits on parking between Pinyon and Fifth Street on Bridge Street, it states:

17:28.20 Two-hour parking between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.

It shall be unlawful for any person to cause a vehicle to be parked within the area defined in Section 17.28.10 in one (1) location. For a period of time in excess of (2) hours between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday excepting Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. For the purposes of this chapter, to cause a vehicle to be so parked shall be the responsibility of either the registered owner as on file with the State within which the vehicle is registered, or the driver of the vehicle, and any officer issuing a citation for unlawful parking shall be permitted to issue such citation by effective description of the vehicle and leaving citation on the windshield thereof.

Wills noted that due to a deficiency in the number and placement of signs designating the areas as having limited time parking, the code was presently unenforceable (unless a violator was parked too long directly in front or very near one of the present signs)d and, regardless, the Town lacks sufficient personnel to do regular enforcement. He suggested that the Town begin by placing the proper number of signs in the areas with the most problems so that enforcement by complaint could legally be done if shown to be necessary. At the same time the Chamber of Commerce will be approached to work with downtown businesses to ask them to voluntarily not park, or allow employees to park, all day on Bridge Street in the central business district. On occasions such parking is preventing customers of businesses from finding convenient parking. This has been an ongoing discussion among various Chamber boards and downtown merchants over the past two decades plus and was obviously a concern in the further past when the original ordinance establishing the two hour parking was established. The density of higher volume retail in downtown has on the average declined since the 1970’s, with occasion burst of activity such as the mid 1990’s.

In addition the parking around Memorial Hall, the Hotchkiss Public Library and the Church of Art is mostly taken up by employees from downtown businesses. Mary Hockenbery of the Church of Art notes that this limits customer’s options for parking near her entrance although she has adequate private parking behind the building. Wills asked if perhaps the 2 hour enforceable parking zones could be expanded onto First Street and along Main at the public library.

Mayor Koontz assured Wills that the Town will work with the Chamber to try and solve the problem equitably. Wills said he would meet with the Chamber board at the end of July to determine what actions they were willing to take and bring those back to the board.

The Town in the past has responded to parking concerns, while recognizing that if more retail/higher volume businesses were to locate in the central business district, as they are encouraged to do so by the Town’s Master Plan, by first buying a parking lot on Hotchkiss Avenue behind the Creamery and later collaborating with the First State Bank in gravel surfacing a temporary lot on the south west corner of Bridge and Second Streets. It has also been suggested to collaborate with the Hotchkiss Elks lodge for daytime use of their lot for public parking. A rough survey of available parking done during the writing of the Downtown Improvement Plan showed adequate parking with the only problems at the time being due to drivers being unwilling to utilize the available parking by parking a little further from their target destinations.

So, the challenge facing the Chamber and Town currently is gaining, in a friendly collaborative manner, the broader cooperation of the downtown business community in establishing a long term habit of leaving Bridge Street parking for business patrons in order to encourage local to patronage locally and encourage new business to locate in the downtown core.

Tom Wills is the editor and co-publisher of the Herald, a Town of Hotchkiss Trustee, planner and planning commission member, as well as an active volunteer with the Chamber/Town’s Downtown Improvement Committee. He also owns Wills Gallery and Used Books at 229 West Bridge and sometimes parks longer than two hours in front of his business.