Going to a movie downtown? Parking may be easier

If you like to catch the matinee at Kimball’s Peak Three Theater downtown, the city’s parking enterprise has made it a little easier for you to enjoy the show.

The parking enterprise recently changed the meters at the 18 parking spaces in the median in front of the theater, at 115 E. Pikes Peak Ave., from two hours to four hours beginning at 2 p.m., so moviegoers can soak in the cinema without having to rush out to feed the meter.

“My customers had to come back out halfway through the movie and plug the meter — nobody wants a $20 ticket,” said Kimball Bayles, owner of Kimball’s Peak Three.

Parking administrator Greg Warnke said the enterprise tries to adjust the meters to the needs of the businesses and traffic in each area of downtown with four-hour, two-hour or one-hour meters.

“We’re trying to cover all the parking needs of all the area businesses, not just the theater,” Warnke said.

Tweaking the theater meters is a test, he said, through the end of the year. The hours are the only thing that’s changed, and only at those 18 meters — the rates are still $1 an hour and the parking ticket for failing to feed the meter is still $20.

Kimball’s general manager Matt Stevens said the longer hours are a boon to theater patrons who don’t like to use the city-owned parking garage a block away at 127 E. Kiowa St. because of the stairs and walk involved.

“I think it’s a good step forward,” Stevens said.

Stevens, however, thinks those $20 fines are still scaring people away from downtown. He’s collecting signatures on a petition to ask the City Council to change the fines back to $10, as they were before they were raised last year.

“I think it was a horrible decision, increasing the fines 100 percent,” Stevens said. “It’s a deterrent to people coming downtown.”

It’s actually the Colorado Springs Municipal Court that sets the ticket amount, though, and court administrator Rick Lewis said there are no plans to change the fine.

“The court had done quite a bit of research in terms of what other municipalities were charging for these kinds of fines,” he said. “We felt that the increase from $10 to $20 was appropriate based on what those other cities were assessing.”

The jump in fines hasn’t been a bonanza for the city: In 2008, the city collected $820,000 in parking fines, Lewis said. In 2009, that rose to $908,000, and, in 2010, it’s on track to reach about $950,000.

“I suspect people are more aware of it (the fines) and they’re being more careful and feeding the meters,” Lewis said.

The city’s parking garages are only $1 after 2 p.m., but getting customers to use them is a constant struggle, said Ron Butlin, executive director of the Downtown Partnership advocacy group.

“If you park in a parking structure, you can’t get a ticket,” he said. “We seem to have difficulty persuading people to try the parking structures.”