Meter made? Aurora mulls parking fees for new light-rail stations

AURORA | The only metered parking within Aurora city limits exists on and just south of the Anschutz Medical Campus. But that could change once the city’s new 10.5-mile light rail line opens in a little over a year.

Last week, council members of the city council’s management and finance policy committee discussed what could be done with the $10.5-million, 600-space parking garage set to be built next to the line’s East Iliff Avenue station.

The idea that the Iliff Garage could have fee-based parking is part of a bigger conversation between council and city staff, said Aurora Finance Director Jason Batchelor. “We think the next step is to go out and hire a consultant to develop a business plan for parking  all along the line,” he said. “There’s not a history here in Aurora of people paying for parking. That’s why we need a consultant to help us understand how to handle that.”

John Fernandez, who oversees FasTracks for the city’s Planning and Development department,  said the city has so far only done preliminary studies that showed it could charge anywhere from 50 cents to $2 a day without deterring riders from using the Iliff garage.

“There’s a culture of treating parking as a free commodity when it’s an expensive service,” he said. “It would help the city earn some revenue so we could pay for the services to manage and operate the garage.”

Right now, the 600 spaces for Iliff are jointly-owned by RTD and the city, with $2.8 million coming from RTD and the rest from city taxpayer dollars.

Tina Jaquez, spokeswoman for the RTD FasTracks I-225 Rail Line Project, said RTD wants to have the 600 spots available for the line’s opening day. “We haven’t had a discussion of who manages that yet,” she said of whether some of that parking would come at a price.

She said that whatever happens, the Iliff garage will still have the same parking plan as The Nine Mile Station, where out-of-district users pay $2 a day to park at the lot, and district users pay $2 a day to park longer than 24 hours. That fee system is common at other RTD Park-n-Ride locations.

She said if Aurora moves forward with charging for parking beyond that model, it would be the first. Legislation that allows private and public entities outside of RTD to own and operate Park-n-Rides was passed by the Colorado legislature in 2013. It’s still a new concept for Colorado cities with light rail, she said.

RTD budgeted for 1,800 parking spaces along the Aurora line’s eight stations when FasTracks was approved in 2004.

In addition to the 600 guaranteed spaces for Iliff, that so far includes 200 spaces at the East Second Avenue and Abilene Street station, 250 spaces at the 13th Avenue station, and 550 spaces at Peoria Station that will be shared with commuters using the East Rail line.

Fernandez said in 2010, the city conducted its own study of parking needed along the Aurora line and found that on the low end, the line needs at least 3,335 spaces to accommodate potential commuters.

Aurora councilman Bob LeGare, who chairs the management and finance policy committee, said  he thought it was a good idea to study what kind of parking can be developed at each station. 

He said thousands of cars use Aurora’s portion of the I-225 corridor—where most of the light rail is located—on their way to work everyday, and will likely use the light rail once it opens. 

“Even if development never happens at these rail stations, I suspect the parking garages are going to be full. Therein lies the possibility of putting up a fee structure on the garage,” he said.

He said what that fee structure could look like would depend on what the study finds could work at each station. 

“We’re trying to determine would the 600 spaces sit empty if you put a fee on it, or would 450 be occupied and the other 150 sit empty?” he said.