FORT COLLINS • Few longtime Fort Collins residents feel the sense of pride and community spirit Old Town Fort Collins represents more than Jim Hewitt.  

His father opened The Cupboard kitchen supply store in Old Town in 1972. Hewitt, now 49, grew up in the shop, working part-time in high school and summers off from college before eventually taking over the store in 2012.  

“It is very satisfying to be part of this vibrant downtown for so long,” Hewitt said during a recent weekday interview with The Gazette. “We really do have a great downtown with a lot of variety of businesses that have been around a long time – you mix in the nightlife, restaurants, and office buildings, and Old Town is really unique.”  

Still, there is a growing concern by Hewitt and other business owners that the city’s Old Town, after which Disneyland reportedly modeled its Main Street USA, could lose its luster.  

All signs seem to point to Fort Collins transitioning to paid metered parking in the beloved quarter in 2027 or possibly 2028 from previous free on-street and surface lot spaces that have been a hallmark of the area for over 60 years.  

The City Council met in December and late March with a more stringent, and costly, paid parking policy in Old Town. Some of these changes have already gone into place, with more on the horizon.  

The area is now patrolled by the city Parking Services Monday-Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and the warning citations that have been given will end June 1.  The city will also stop issuing “courtesy” notices for first-time violations and implement fines on June 1.  

Additionally, the city hopes to increase parking violations from $25 to $35 and increase prepaid parking garage permit fees by $10 monthly in the city’s three parking garages.

The big-ticket item that remains in question is if and when the City Council might vote to implement paid on-street parking.  

During the March 24 meeting, Parking Services was on hand to discuss their budgetary constraints and a study issued by Walker Consultants that revealed some estimated costs and revenue with moving toward paid parking.  

City Council wanted to give Parking Services more time to review the study and planned to reconvene for another meeting in May to discuss the study before voting.  

“Downtown parking is different than private parking lots because they are maintained by the owner – like Best Buy or Target,” Fort Collins Mayor Emily Francis said. “The city owns those parking spaces downtown, and they have to be maintained, along with the parking garages. Currently, we’re not bringing in enough to maintain the parking garages and future maintenance.”  

Not surprisingly, Hewitt and others are not on board with a transition to paid metered parking, worried it will negatively affect businesses.

“Implementing paid street parking will hurt a downtown that right now is thriving,” Hewitt said. “I think there is concern with finding funds to update the garages, and I think that other avenues can be explored.” 

Pushing back on paid parking

Many Old Town business owners echo Hewitt’s sentiments.  

Christie Rogers is another longtime retail business owner in Fort Collins. Her family has owned Alpine Arts, another fixture in the area’s eclectic collection of shops, for 45 years.  

She believes it’s the retail businesses that will be hit the hardest should paid street parking go into effect. 

“Mom and pop retailers would be hit the hardest and lunchtime businesses,” Rogers said. “The businesses that will be hit the hardest will be those that operate from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., which, to me, seems incredibly unfair. I’m absolutely concerned. Why would you spend $4 for parking to come in and buy a $9 candle in my store?”

Rogers, Hewitt and others said they have done their due diligence to ensure their voices are heard.  

At the time of the interviews, they had already collected over 9,000 signatures from people opposed to paid parking and had set up a petition and overview of the concerns with switching to paid parking in Old Town. 

 Rogers said many residents have said they would not be shopping and dining out in Old Town should paid on-street parking go into effect. 

Whether that happens remains to be seen.   

Much of the concern shared by Rogers, Hewitt, and other business owners in Old Town is that paid metered street parking will transform the area’s dynamics and its diverse collection of businesses, and it will transform into more of an entertainment district.         

“I think it could change the balance of Old Town,” Lucky Kerig, co-owner of the popular Irish pub Lucky Joe’s. “I think this beautiful Old Town Square we have would lose its balance in clientele because a lot of that clientele might be offended by having all of these parking meters in place.”

Parking Services, council stances

City officials want to do away with the current parking regimen, which they believe to be an “upside-down” model, where parking in one of the three garages is paid for, though cheap, and the premium spots on the street are free for two hours daily, Monday through Saturday.  

There is some potential division among the ranks, however.  

District 3 Councilmember Josh Fudge is uncertain how he would vote, while District 2 Councilmember and Mayor Pro Tem Julie Pignataro was quick to point out during the March 24 work session that this has been an agenda item for a number of years and that something needs to be done. 

“There are a lot of people constantly looking for spots in Old Town, so I think paid parking could better ensure constant turnover,” Fudge said. “At the same time, I recognize that the economy is tough on a lot of people right now.” 

Pignataro was adamant that she does not want the parking situation in Old Town to drag out until 2028. 

There is logic to her thinking. The primary being that the City Council could very possibly have a change of the guard by then. Districts 2, 4 and 6 will be up for reelection in 2027, which she highlighted during the late-March meeting.  

There are costs and benefits associated with transitioning to a new on-street paid modality.  

Parking Services Senior Manager Eric Keselburg and his staff made a presentation during a City Council work session in December that highlighted the proposed project could cost $1.27 million for 64 multispace parking meters, $150,000 for wayfinding signage, $200,000 to install fixed license plate recognition systems in all three downtown garages, and some other yet-to-be determined costs associated with the project.   

Implementation of paid parking in Old Town is projected to generate $2.5 million annually, according to a Fort Collins city website geared toward parking management updates.

Pushback from business owners like Hewitt and Rogers and city residents is anticipated.

City Clerk Delynn Coldiron said that to make paid on-street parking a ballot issue, a registered elector could file a notice of protest within 10 days after final passage of the ordinance (date of its second reading).  

Critics would have 10 days after that to provide a referendum petition they wish to circulate and, once approved by the city clerk, would have 21 days to collect 5,711 valid signatures, which would be 10% of the total ballots cast from the last regular election. 

“Parking is always a polarizing topic,” Keselburg said. “We recognize the concerns, and we’re not absent from understanding. Our goal is to make parking easier for the user and to ensure customer turnover.”