AURORA | Eight stations along the Interstate 225 FasTracks light rail line will open to the public by 2016, but city officials say there’s already a roadblock: Where will people park their cars once they arrive at the stations?
City officials say they might need help from taxpayers and private developers to build more parking for Aurora’s light rail project.
The Regional Transportation District has budgeted for a total of 1,800 parking spaces at some stations along the $350 million Interstate 225 FasTracks light rail line. There are 1,900 parking spaces at one station alone, the Decatur/Federal Station, along the newly-opened West Rail Line. Aurora’s Nine Mile Station, the only station already built along the I-225 light rail line, has more than 1,000 parking spots and is full by 8 a.m.
Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan said he’s “certain” Aurora’s 1,800 parking spaces are not enough for the 10.5-mile long rail line.
“People aren’t going to be able to use light rail for the most part without driving to get there,” Hogan said.
If more parking spaces aren’t offered to public transit users, drivers will likely park their cars for up to 10 hours anywhere they can find a spot, Hogan said.
“If there aren’t parking lots, they’ll start parking in places they shouldn’t be parking, like neighborhood streets, school lots and business lots — places that aren’t intended to be used for RTD parking,” he said.
RTD’s plans call for 600 parking spaces at the Iliff Station, no parking at the Florida Station, 200 parking spaces at the City Center Station, 200 spaces at the 2nd Avenue and Abilene Station, 250 spaces at the 13th Avenue Station, no parking at the Colfax Station or the Montview Station, and 550 parking spaces shared with the East Rail Line at the Peoria Station.
The city is considering several options to address the parking shortage.
One option would be for the city to lease a certain number of parking spaces from a developer or land owner that’s interested in building a parking lot near a light rail station.
“We might give (a developer) an incentive to make a parking structure larger than it would be otherwise,” Hogan said.
Partnering with private companies or developers to build large-ticket municipal projects is becoming more popular among cash-strapped local governments. For example, municipal governments across the country have partnered with private developers to build projects in the water, energy, conservation and transportation sectors, said Randy Harrison, a senior fellow at the University of Colorado Denver’s Buechner Institute for Governance. He said a public-private partnership to build increased parking along the I-225 line is novel and doable.
“This is another, creative example of public-private partnership use, and it may very well be possible to get something built this way,” he said. “It sounds like a great opportunity.”
Colorado lawmakers just passed a new law that makes it easier for private developers to operate parking lots near RTD stations.
Parking lots at RTD stations can now be leased, owned or operated by private entities or municipal governments under a bill sponsored by state Sen. Nancy Todd, D-Aurora, that was signed into law in April. Under the bill, private companies and local governments are allowed to build and operate parking lots and charge for parking at or near an RTD station. Before, no entity could offer parking spaces for RTD users unless the parking spaces were RTD-owned.
“The people who live in Aurora work all over the metro area, and they often hop on RTD to get to work,” Todd said in a statement after the bill was signed into law. “It’s important that they have a place to park their car quickly at the transit stations. This bill ensures that.”
Hogan says a “Parking Authority” could also be created to address the parking shortage. The authority could be an independent entity or part of the city, but its purpose would be to get parking structures built, Hogan said. Under that model, revenues collected from parking fees across the city could be used to pay for additional parking lots near the light rail line, Hogan said. State laws could complicate the creation of a parking authority, though. The city would have to set the authority up as an “enterprise” in order to collect revenues and use them to build other projects, or else it would have to hold a special election. Enterprise organizations are city-owned organizations with semi-financial autonomy.
In April, budget officials said the city has an extra $7.4 million in unanticipated tax revenue that could be spent on projects related to the I-225 FasTracks light rail line. Hogan said some of that money could be used to add parking lots. But even if the city wanted to use all that money for additional parking, it might not be enough to build even one parking lot.
The cost to build a parking structure or an underground parking lot is exorbitant, said RTD board member Tom Tobiassen, whose district covers Aurora.
“For RTD to build parking structures, it’s very expensive because we plan for the structure to last 50 years,” Tobiassen said.
According to the book, “Sustainable Transportation Planning” by Jeffrey Tumlin, the cost of land and construction materials for each parking space in a parking structure with multiple levels can cost more than $40,000. That means it could cost up to $10 million to build a 250-space parking structure, depending on cost of land and quality of construction materials.
Costs increase even more for underground lots. Each underground parking space costs between $30,000 and $60,000, according to the book.
Only 13 percent of RTD’s riders currently use parking, Tobiassen said, so RTD has to be careful that money isn’t wasted on building parking lots.
“There’s no recouping of cost,” he said.
Currently, RTD charges $2 per day for out-of-district motorists who park in RTD lots. Parking is free for the rest of the transit users for the first 24 hours.
Parking is a big deal for many Aurora residents, even though only a small percentage of public transit users currently park their cars at RTD stations, Tobiassen said.
“It’s the one thing that I hear most about,” he said. “Aurora has been built around the car.”
Asking voters to increase their taxes to pay for more parking lots isn’t currently an option, Hogan said.
“I think we’ve got a number of options to allow us to (build more parking) without ever having to ask that question,” he said.
Reach reporter Sara Castellanos at 720-449-9036 or sara@aurorasentinel.com.
Aurora voters overwhelmingly rejected measure 2B in 2012, which would have funded several transportation projects around the city. [43.79% Yes / 56.21% No]
https://www.cragaurora.com/Aurora2012TaxHike.PDF
One of the transportation projects called for a 50% contribution of $6,000,000 from the city to RTD to fund a 900 space parking garage.
As Citizens for Responsible Aurora government noted at the time:
“One of the more egregious of the proposed new projects is an approximate 50% contribution of $6,000,000 for a new 900 space parking garage for the RTD facility at Iliff and I-225. Amazing. Residents already pay a 1% RTD sales tax. Why would voters want to double tax themselves, by paying for a new structure that RTD ought to build? The Aurora taxpayer contribution per parking space would be $6700. They will have Cadillac accommodations for the Cadillacs that will park there.”
This current Sentinel story notes:
“In April, budget officials said the city has an extra $7.4 million in unanticipated tax revenue that could be spent on projects related to the I-225 FasTracks light rail line. Hogan said some of that money could be used to add parking lots. But even if the city wanted to use all that money for additional parking, it might not be enough to build even one parking lot.”
So let me get this straight, the city has a $7 million surplus, but had to borrow $4 million from the water department in December to fund the FanFare blight designation and project?
https://cragaurora.com/#FanFare
The I-225 light rail has been a bungling bureaucratic boondoggle from the get-go. Now that it is obvious they messed up on providing adequate parking for light rail, Aurora public servants favorite solutions are to either raise taxes or provide “incentives” (tax giveaways) to favored corporate interests.
I’d encourage Aurora taxpayers to closely monitor the government contortions for solving the I-225 light rail parking problem.
If RTD builds it, they will come to ride it but have no place to park.
I know it’s too late now but maybe RTD Board member should be required to take the local transportation to their board meetings. You know, have an idea as to what they are suppose to do.
If your vehicle is registered at an address within RTD boundaries,
you may park for free the first 24-hour period. After this period, a
nominal $2.00 fee applies. Patrons with vehicles registered out of the
district pay a $4.00 fee every day they park.
Have the City take whatever money it needs from teh Water Departyment’s budge. They’re the only City division that ooperates at a profit and their money doesn’t get tapped into the general fund. For the price we pay for water we might as well be able to park when we leave the City.
Seems to me that the entire RTD system is just a way to provide subsidized parking for those who work in downtown Denver.
Hello??? Aurora has a good bus system, and routes could be tweaked toward serving the light rail stations. Are Coloradans incapable of divorcing their cars and the pollution they create? I smell someone crying wolf in order to free up tax money for private parking operators. I live too far to walk to the Iliff station, but not too far to walk to a nearby bus that goes directly to that intersection, and I will be leaving my car at home when the light rail opens.