The city’s temporary closure this week of the parking garage on Ninth Street and Cooper Avenue affected and upset a lot of people who live and work in Glenwood Springs.

“They didn’t talk to us,” Russell Cabe, manager of Sunlight Ski and Bike Shop, said of the city. “For a decision like this, that affects the downtown businesses a lot, I would expect more inclusion in the discussion and be a little bit more a part of a decision like that.” 

The city rented out the entire parking garage, starting on Thursday until March 7, to house luxury cars for an Aspen event. 

---

---

Cabe said there was no signage and they never received any notice that the parking garage was closing. He said one of the supervisors mentioned the Post Independent article on Wednesday, but not the date. Cabe said that the only reason they knew was because a staff member went to their car and saw a note left on their windshield telling them to move. 

The original information was presented to Glenwood Springs City Council during public comment at a meeting on Feb. 2, giving Council limited time to make the decision and offer a price, Councilor Ingrid Wussow said.

---

---

“I am really sorry for any inconvenience to those employees and general community members who regularly use the parking garage,” she said. 

She added that Council needs to weigh the fiscal benefits to the inconvenience of using public facilities. Knowing various required building repair costs in the city and the fact that February is a slow month for Glenwood, the additional funding and business to the town outweighed the inconvenience, Wussow said. 

The request was made by Hotel Colorado President Christian Henny, because the group will be staying at the hotel. 

The Glenwood Springs parking garage is the only large-scale covered lot in the Roaring Fork Valley that can house such a large number of high-end luxury vehicles, and the company preferred to use a covered lot for security and weather purposes, he said at the Feb. 2 meeting. 

It is expected that since they will be staying in Glenwood Springs for the extent of the rental, they will also be bringing business to the town throughout their stay. 

“With February being in Glenwood’s shoulder season and historically being the slowest month for local businesses, new visitors can help inject support of local business, economic activity and vitality into our community through guest dining, shopping and attraction visits in the city over the two-week period of their stay,” a followup city news release states.

Any additional information about the renters or the event itself is unobtainable due to a non-disclosure agreement signed by Hotel Colorado. 

Where will the funding go? Where can I park?

Funds from renting out the parking garage will go right back into maintenance and repairs for the garage, city officials said. 

“Approximately $408,000 of immediately necessary work including deck and drainage repairs to the garage have been identified by staff and the new revenue will go toward completing that work this year,” the release states.

The remainder of the construction and repair costs of the garage will come from the city’s Capital Projects fund.

During the closure, Hotel Colorado is providing free public parking in both the Hotel Colorado lot above the hotel near Fifth Street, and also at the former Fiesta Guadalajara parking lot, the former KFC parking lot and the Maple Street parking lot directly behind Summit Canyon Mountaineering on Maple Street.

The city also said it will not be issuing tickets based on two- and four-hour parking limits in the downtown area while the garage is closed to the public. 

“Vehicles still must respect accessible parking space rules, abide by laws prohibiting parking for 72 hours or more and must not park in front of fire hydrants or driveways,” city public information officer Bryana Starbuck said. “Please respect the 10-minute loading and 15-minute parking limits.”

For any addition questions, contact Starbuck at bryana.starbuck@cogs.us or 970-384-6441.

Post Independent reporter Cassandra Ballard can be reached at cballard@postindependent.com or 970-384-9131.