What’s Happening in Golden Today?
6-6:55AM Dynamic Circuit (Virtual)
8:30-9:30AM Power Training (Virtual)
10AM-5PM Holiday Art Market @ Foothills Art Center
10-10:55AM All Levels Yoga (Virtual)10AM and 1PM Wild West Pub Crawl (3 hours)
10AM and 1PM Wild West Short Tour (1 hour)
10:15-10:45AM Let’s Dance @ Golden Library
11AM-1PM Coffee with a Reporter @ Cafe 13 (map)
Meet Corinne Western of the Golden Transcript and share your feedback about the Transcript — what they’ve been doing well, what they can do better, story ideas and so on. You can also just talk about Golden in general. More information
12-12:30PM Mondays with Mayor Weinberg (Virtual)
1PM Wild West Pub Crawl
2-3PM Active Minds Mondays – King Tut (Virtual)
4-4:30PM Kids Martial Arts Class (Virtual)
6:30-7:30PM Golden Anti-Racism Collective General Meeting
Let’s get together to talk about all things. We will have a few agenda items to cover, but let’s have the conversation be natural. With all that’s going on in the world, we think it’s imperative to provide a space to talk to about things that are on your mind. We will end the session with small session discussions. We look forward to seeing you in person! Please RSVP by email.
The Ongoing Conversation About Downtown Parking
Last Monday, as part of my DDA agenda preview, I wrote about a parking study that the City has undertaken. I summarized some of the discussion that had already taken place, when the parking consultants met with the Community Marketing Committee and the Chamber. I illustrated the article with one of the two pictures I generally use when writing about downtown parking. One appears above, and other, taken from the City’s West Downtown Plan, appears below.
I tend to alternate the two pictures, and used the second picture last Monday, with the caption “West Downtown Parking Reduction Plan.”
I received a note from Rick Muriby, the City’s Community & Economic Development Director stating that they are NOT specifically discussing Arapahoe Street at this time. Instead, they are asking three general questions:
• What about parking is working well in Downtown Golden?
• What about parking isn’t working well in Downtown Golden?
• How does parking relate to economic vitality in Downtown Golden?
Mr. Muriby tells me that my use of the Arapahoe Street picture and the “Parking Reduction Plan” caption misled my readers and caused them to send comments about parking reduction plans, instead of responses to the three more general questions above. He asked me to clarify this point for my readers.
That’s a fair request. Readers, if you have opinions about the three questions above, you may send them to planning@cityofgolden.net. Alternatively, you can wait until the City posts a survey for the public.
Why did I caption the picture “Parking Reduction Plan?”
My reference to the Parking Reduction Plan was based on the West Downtown Neighborhood Plan, which includes the picture (above) showing reduced parking and explains it as follows:
The focus of the Arapahoe Street Improvement Plan will be to increase the width of the walkway and enhance its safety. Bulb-outs will be integrated to further enhance crossings across Arapahoe Street. Pedestrian seating and shade sails are integrated into the plan to complete our place making component, inviting individuals to spend time along the corridor if desired. Finally, sidewalk enhancements can also be integrated along 12th and 13th Streets in the future.
If the project is implemented in a successful manner, the City will approach the property owners along the west side of Arapahoe Street about developing similar improvements as part of a phase 2 approach. Phase 3, if desired by the community, will extend the improvements north of 12th Street to 11th Street.
West Downtown Neighborhood Plan, pp. 33-35
This plan was approved by the Planning Commission on 2/5/20.
Meeting Video (at 1 hour, 28 minutes to 2 hours, 5 minutes)
It was discussed by City Council in a study session on 5/21/20.
Meeting Video (at 1 hour, 44 minutes through 2 hours, 9 minutes)
It was approved by City Council in a business meeting on 6/11/20.
Meeting Video (at 2 hours, 7 minutes)
The plan goes on to say:
A conceptual rendering for the Arapahoe Street Improvements is provided below. It must be stressed that this plan is conceptual. The City of Golden will work with the community to ensure the improvements address all of their concerns.
Accordingly, the Mobility and Transportation Advisory Committee held a public hearing on 10/28/21 to decide the specific question of, “are sidewalk improvements on Arapahoe Street worth reducing parking?” No members of the public attended the meeting, but the board did receive letters from employees at the physical therapy business on Arapahoe Street, saying that their patients needed close-by parking.
The video of the MTAB discussion is chaotic and hard to hear, but it’s well worth watching. The topic runs from the 1 hour mark to 1 hour and 22 minutes. The crescendo occurs at 1 hour and 12 minutes:
I realize that we’re not downtown Denver, but if you work in downtown Denver you certainly don’t expect to have a parking space five feet from your door. So to answer your [staff’s] question, yes, I think it’s perfectly appropriate to lose parking. I think you’re going to have to indicate what the parking policy that comes with that is, which is that we are going–I would suggest–they have two concerns: that their staff are saying they can’t find a parking place right in front of the building and the patrons can’t find a place in front of the building because the staff have already taken those places. So the parking policy–just like Cherry Creek North had to implement when they did a parking study and discovered there’s no place for patrons because all the retail staff are parking in front of the shops for eight hours–your staff have to go park in the garages that are a flippin’ five minute walk away.
MTAB voted to approve the plan to widen sidewalks and reduce parking.
Mr. Muriby’s email of last week said, “If there is eventually a project to determine whether or not to change the angled parking on Arapahoe Street to parallel parking to provide a wider sidewalk, it would need to involve a separate community conversation.”
I thought the MTAB hearing had been the “separate community conversation” and the final decision. My apologies. If I learn of still another hearing on this topic, I’ll let you know, dear readers.
Golden History Moment
Golden has been wrestling with the parking problem for nearly a century. We’ve tried many solutions. In the late 1920s, we introduced diagonal parking, which allowed us to accommodate nearly twice as many cars as parallel parking. In the 1950s, we decided Washington Avenue needed that street space to accommodate more traffic lanes, so we went from diagonal parking back to parallel parking. Some of the dislodged cars from Washington were absorbed by Arapahoe Street when it “went diagonal” in 1957.
Businesses were frantic for more parking, because their customers said they wouldn’t come downtown when there was no place to park. The City instituted a 2-hour limit on parking, but both patrons and business owners complained when the limit was enforced. There was much talk, over the years, of installing parking meters and charging for parking.
The City bought a remote parking lot east of Ford Street and asked downtown employees to use it. Employees didn’t like the remote location. The City encouraged locals to walk downtown, and leave their cars at home.
After World War II, the situation became so desperate that both businesses and the City began to look for buildings that could be purchased and razed to make room for parking. Mr. Foss of Foss Drug led the way, purchasing two houses behind the store to create the “Foss Lot.” Other houses near downtown also gave way to parking lots.
Several pioneer-era churches were demolished to make room for parking. When the current municipal building opened in 1961, the old City Hall became the parking lot next to the Astor House.
The City bought the Astor House in 1971, with the intention of turning that property into a parking lot. That proved to be one demolition too many for the Golden community. Golden Landmarks Association was formed and they built a successful grassroots campaign to save the Astor House. Council agreed to put the issue on a ballot, and the community voted to purchase the old building and use it as a museum.
Thanks to the Golden History Museum for providing the online cache of historic Transcripts, and to the Golden Transcript for documenting our history since 1866!
