Fort Collins council zeroes in on employee parking as key issue in downtown parking debate

Employee parking emerged as a central concern in Fort Collins City Council’s discussion Tuesday of possible downtown parking changes, with council members signaling they want worker parking options addressed before broader moves such as paid on-street parking. Mayor Emily Francis said the city should keep moving on employee parking even if a larger update to the downtown parking plan and a pilot program take more time.

The work-session discussion, listed as Item 2, was part of the city’s Downtown Parking Optimization Update. Staff has framed downtown parking as a distribution problem more than a supply shortage, with studies showing the district’s combined peak occupancy generally below the 85% threshold the city uses as an effective target. But council members repeatedly returned to the practical problem of downtown employees competing for the most convenient spaces and the need for more predictable options for workers.

Francis said the issue is compounded by current permit limits and waitlists. "We can do discount permits, but the permits have a waitlist," she said, adding that dedicated employee parking looked increasingly necessary and might be something the city should move on faster. Later in the discussion, she said she wanted to make sure the city was "thinking and moving on employee parking rather than waiting" while staff develops a pilot and revisits the broader parking plan.

Staff materials already point toward that direction. Parking Services is preparing discounted employer-provided permits for city garages and surface lots, along with a possible income-qualified permit program and shared or flexible permits aimed at part-time and shift-based workers. The employer survey in the agenda packet described employee parking as "a workforce issue, not just a transportation issue" and said the current two-hour system creates disruption because car-moving has become "a daily workaround rather than a sustainable parking strategy."

Councilmember Melanie Potyondy said she remained uneasy with charging downtown workers to park for their shifts and wanted the city to consider whether some free employee parking should remain part of any eventual approach. She said she did not want "to be charging our service workers for going to work" and asked staff to revisit whether garages could be free during limited times as part of a future pilot. Potyondy also said she wanted a pilot that leads to actual changes rather than another long pause in the debate.

Mike Freeman, a city staff member, said free garage access had been discussed briefly but was not a recommendation at this point because the city still has maintenance obligations and does not want garages to become long-term storage. He said there are still options if council wants a pilot that aligns garage operations with future on-street parking tests.

Part of the employee-parking discussion also touched on whether private lots could play a bigger role. Francis said some private lot owners have liability and legal concerns and want to preserve future flexibility for their properties, but she added that at least two lots are already being used through private agreements with employers for some employee parking.

By the end of the discussion, staff said it was hearing support for short-term work on pilot options with a particular emphasis on an employee parking strategy, alongside a longer-term update to the city’s older parking plan. Under the timeline outlined in the agenda materials, downtown employee parking options are already considered an in-process project targeted for 2026 or early 2027.