Mar. 20—Plans for parking lot surface upgrades and more paid parking in Old Colorado City evoked concern and criticism from small business owners at a public meeting Monday evening as members of the city parking enterprise addressed a need for infrastructure fixes — and acquiring the funding to complete it.

The city is set to convert three free parking lots in Old Colorado City into paid parking after a project to resurface the lots, add parking kiosks and replace a failing retaining wall, but small business owners in the community are worried about how a lack of free parking will influence the core.

"My biggest concern as voiced by everybody in here is that somehow we would do anything to discourage patrons," said Colorado City Creamery owner Carrie Burris. "This is a hard little shopping district to continue to get people here. We're not this high-end shopping district."

Small business owners also had questions about how to handle parking for employees, who rely on free parking during shifts to avoid paying as much as $17 per shift in an hourly spot, as many small businesses do not have the funds to invest in monthly parking permits for each employee. Some attendees also said walking to free parking far from their place of work poses possible safety risks.

"You're going to make it more difficult for these business owners to hire employees because their employees are going to have to pay to park here. We already have challenges in trying to hire people and getting good quality people, and you're throwing another wrench into it, another form of a tax for people to come down here," said Jim Windsor.

Lack of free parking in the Old Colorado City core could also push more vehicles into surrounding neighborhoods, impacting parking for residents who already deal with parking limitations on busy days. Small business owner and Old Colorado City resident Megan Morris said she avoids inviting people to her home on the weekends because there is nowhere for guests to park.

As part of the improvements project, four lots in Old Colorado City will be milled down and resurfaced by removing the top two inches of existing asphalt, completing repairs, putting a new two-inch asphalt layer, then repainting lines. Parking kiosks will be introduced to three of these lots, which are now free, but it has not been determined when parkers will have to start paying for parking.

A second project will have crews replace an aging retaining wall, which city parking manager John Crawford said is failing in some places and needs to be addressed. This leg of construction is still in the planning stages but is expected to cost over $1 million.

The parking rates in three parking lots will be $1.25 for each of the first two hours, $1.50 for a third hour and $1.75 for each additional hour after the third hour, which will match pricing in the 26th Street Lot — as of now, the only lot to charge parking fees.

The city will enforce parking rates from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 1 to 10 p.m. on Sundays, except for city holidays. Officials also plan to remove the three-hour parking time limit at each of the three lots that are now free of charge.

Many of the small business owners in attendance Monday sat down for a similar meeting last year.

"We had this meeting discussing this six months ago or so and then it's like the decision got made but none of us knew the decision was made and set in stone," said Morris, who owns Mekari Springs. "I would just think you want business owners involved in decision making not just informing us that the decision has been made."

"It was an informative meeting rather than discussion and opinion. We were hopeful that it would be a discussion and that they would listen to small business feedback," said Laura Hadley, who owns Mackenzie & West with Glynis Hartwig.

The parking enterprise took over the three free lots in October and, according to Crawford, there has not been money in budgets to address upkeep. "They've been operated by the parks department for many, many years. During that period of time there were challenges having available resources to keep them maintained the way they should be and also the surrounding aspects of a parking lot the way they should be," he said.

According to Crawford, the timeline for the asphalt project is expected to begin April 10 and a memo on the project lays out a five-day timeline to complete the lot resurfacing. The wall replacement, which has not been scheduled, will take longer.

Business owners said they would prefer these projects be put on hold until early 2024, when business slows down, so as to not interfere with busier spring and summer months. Two attendees even expressed uncertainty and stress over how to approach lease renewals for their businesses in light of the impending changes to parking.

The improvement plans are in place, but employees with the parking enterprise were not closed off to compromise with Monday's meeting attendees. Small business owners and the parking enterprise agreed to pull together a small group with representatives from both sides in the next few weeks to discuss addressing concerns moving forward.