Neighbors' anxiety about stadium parking ramps up again

The first event at Colorado State University’s new on-campus stadium is more than four months away, but worry about game-day parking is already in high gear.

Anxiety about how the stadium would affect neighborhoods near campus has been ongoing since the stadium was proposed a few years ago, with parking impacts being just one of the worries.

However, the level of concern about parking was kicked up a couple of notches recently by a memo from the city’s Parking Advisory Board to City Council that recommended against having game-day permitted parking for residents only in neighborhoods near campus.

The idea alarmed some residents of neighborhoods close to campus, especially those south of Prospect Road. The area is known collectively as the Sheely neighborhood, although it consists of three neighborhoods.

The parking board stated “the concept of permit parking with fines for non-permitted vehicles is unwelcoming to visitors” and parking in neighborhoods bordering CSU is a “parking resource that will be needed for the potential volume of cars that need to be accommodated for large events.”

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Sheely folks thought they had a deal with the city and CSU: Game-day parking would not be allowed in their neighborhoods. Email and calls to council members raised the alarm.

The neighbors did indeed have a deal, and still do. Visitor parking for games and other large events at the stadium will not be allowed in Sheely and other neighborhoods if that is what neighborhoods want, city officials said.

The city has proposed a program that would issue parking permits to residents as well as their family members and guests in designated areas for large events at the stadium. A large event is defined as one that is anticipated to draw more than 12,000 people.

Similar to the city’s weekday Residential Parking Permit Program, or RP3, the program would have to be approved through a neighborhood vote, said Seth Lorson, a city transit planner. The cost of permits and signage would be covered by CSU.

The recommended fine for parking in a permitted area without a permit would be $100. On Tuesday, some City Council members said they wouldn’t mind a stiffer fine, or perhaps one that escalates with repeated violations.

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Signs would be posted at the entrances to designated zones and on each block to warn would-be, unauthorized parkers. Towing offending vehicles is an option, although not supported by city staff because of the noise and disruption that would cause in neighborhoods.

Some Sheely residents have lobbied for putting up barricades at entrances to the area off Prospect Road.

That’s a possibility, Lorson said, although it might be done under the auspices of CSU’s “Good Neighbor” program aimed at addressing stadium impacts rather than the city’s parking program. And in any case, a neighborhood would not be locked down because residents will want to be able to come and go.

The Parking Advisory Board is free to state its opinion to council, Lorson said. Its recommendations and perspectives are taken seriously. But the board does not set policy.

And the council is not likely to change direction on the policies it has been working on for years in hopes of mitigating the stadium’s impact on neighborhoods.

Kevin Duggan is a senior reporter and columnist. Follow him at Coloradoan Kevin Duggan on Facebook or @coloradoan_dugg on Twitter.

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