Chautauqua program gets 5-year extension
After testing paid parking and free shuttles at crowded Chautauqua Park last summer, Boulder is primed to extend the program into the future.
The City Council earlier this week approved, on first reading, an ordinance that proposes to keep the program — referred to by city staff as the Chautauqua Access Management Plan, or CAMP — for the next five years, at a projected cost of a just over $1 million.
A full public hearing on the measure is scheduled for Feb. 20.
On weekends between June and August, Boulder charged people to $2.50 per hour — double the rate charged elsewhere in the city — to park at Chautauqua and on certain streets nearby.
The paid parking deterred some drivers from visiting the area, which was a significant goal of the pilot. There were 50 fewer cars reported in the area of the park per hour, per day, during the test, city staff said.
Charging people to park also brought in revenue for the city, as nearly 1,300 people were ticketed during the 2017 pilot. Staff’s latest recommendation estimates about $775,000 in revenue for the city over the next five years, which would offset most of CAMP’s projected cost.
During the pilot period, Boulder also ran free shuttles from various satellite lots up to Chautauqua. An average of 900 people rode those shuttles daily.
All of this, the council agreed, constituted a “great success.”
After the 2017 pilot wrapped up, feedback was generally positive from neighbors, various Boulder boards and commissions and from the Colorado Chautauqua Association.
But there are many concerned neighbors who feel the shuttles to Chautauqua introduced too much traffic, noise and air pollution — particularly along the Ninth Street route. Buses also ran up Baseline Road, though that route drew many fewer complaints.
Fifty-six different people recently signed a petition asking for mitigation of Ninth Street issues under future versions of CAMP.
Chautauqua is by far the most popular location in the 45,000acre Open Space and Mountains Parks system, according to a 2016 survey. But other spots — such as Mount Sanitas, Wonderland Lake and Shanahan Ridge — may require CAMP-esque attention in future years.
Open Space and Mountain Parks spokesman Phil Yates said that the department is going to publish a study in the second quarter of this year that will inform discussions about access management beyond Chautauqua.
“We’ll estimate the total number of visits, where visits occur and what type of activities visitors are engaged in,” he said. “The study will also explore how people arrived at trailheads — by foot, bike, bus or car — and if people arrived by car, we also asked them how difficult it was to park.”