Police Department
Reference: Permitted and restricted parking areas
To: Mayor Gregory Mills and Members of City Council
Through: Michael P. Martinez, City Manager
Prepared By: Betsy Westbrook, Deputy Chief
Date Prepared: November 21, 2023
PURPOSE
To inform, update, and solicit the council’s direction related to possible changes to parking around Brighton High School.
BACKGROUND
In March of 2023, Commander Imfeld and Chief Domenico presented to the Council regarding the issue of permitted parking around Brighton High School. At that time the city had signage in place restricting parking around Brighton High School and the US Post Office to residents with a parking permit. The program was established in the Brighton Police Department policy manual, policy 318 with an effective date of December 20, 1993. The program allowed parking by permit only on the residential streets in vicinity of Brighton High School between 7:00 am and 5:00 pm on school days and at the US Post Office by permit only. It’s presumed this was put into place due to students parking in the area and not allowing residents unrestricted parking in front of their residences during school hours and postal service customers parking in front of residences.
In order to obtain a parking permit the resident had to come to the police department and show proof of residency and show proof a vehicle is registered to them. If they were able to provide this information they would be issued two resident parking passes and two guest parking passes. The guest passes could be handed out by the resident for visitors, contractors, homecare, etc. at their discretion. The last full scale enforcement and update to the permitting procedures occurred in May 2008.
Challenges with the past permitting procedures included; people claiming residency were unable to show proof, if more than two residents requested a pass only two were issued (rental homes), residents lost passes and never obtained new ones and subsequently were ticketed, passes were easily duplicated. The only records on issued permits were kept in a three ring binder.
The total number of residences in the restricted parking area around Brighton High School is 153 residences. The total number residences in the restricted area around the US Post Office is 5 residences.
In June 2022 a pilot program was put into place where the restricted parking signs were covered up. This allowed any resident, guest, or student to park on the public roadway as long as their vehicle had valid registration and did not obstruct a driveway or fire hydrant. An informational flyer was sent to and hung on every residential property in the affected area. This flyer gave some background on the program and provided a mechanism for residents to make comments or complainants about parking.
Initially several calls were received as the residents had questions about the pilot parking program. Community service officers (CSOs) and school resource officers (SROs) responded to calls for service and helped to educate both residents and students about the parking restrictions and where they could and could not park. A meeting was held on S. 8th Ave where most of the complaints originated. Public works, Community Development and Brighton police were all in attendance. During the walk through on S. 8th several of the driveways were found to be in violation of the roadway access codes utilized by public works. This meant several vehicles which residents made complaints on were not in violation and complicated enforcement by the police department and courts.
The decision was made based on the input of council to remove the restricted parking. CSOs and SROs continued to patrol the area as their day permitted to help ensure vehicles parked in the area were legally parked. Policy 318 High School Parking Enforcement was removed from the departmental policy manual.
At the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year, residents around the high school continued voicing their complaints about several issues related to the students parking on the streets in front of their homes. The complaints included parking violations, driveways being blocked, trash around their residences, inappropriate behavior, and safety concerns of limited visibility and inexperienced drivers. Some of the residents also indicated they never received notification the permit parking was going away or that the signs indicating restricted parking would be removed.
A community meeting was held on August 24, 2023. Residents, school district representatives, school resource officers as well as other members of the police department, and council members were in attendance. The residents that attended were vocal about their support for a permitted parking program being reinstated in the neighborhood with significant concern about being able access their driveways. Residents admitted some driveways were not permitted and stated they had to create access points to their properties because there is no available parking in front of their residences due to student parking. There was also a suggestion for striping of dedicated parking spots to make violations apparent in relation to driveways and intersections. There was also discussion of the cost for students to get parking permits at the school ($60 per year) and the number of open spots in the school parking lots.
Brighton PD documented 44 parking citations in the area between July and September 2023. CROs and SROs work with the municipal court to enforce parking violations for driveways (permitted or not) which affect egress and ingress to residents’ homes.
CONCLUSIONS
There are no other public roadways in residential areas within the city where parking is restricted for residents only. The restrictions around Brighton High School only apply during school hours when residents may be at work, which diminishes the need for resident parking on the public roadway. The area in question does have alleyways with several detached garages allowing for off-street parking by residents.
If permitted parking restrictions are to resume the city must implement a method for parking permits to be issued. The recommendation would be to issue two resident parking passes and two guest passes for a $5.00 fee. This is the same amount a Brighton resident pays for a recreation center pass. These would only be required to be displayed during schools hours if the vehicle was parked on the public roadway. To be eligible for residential and guest passes, residents would need to show proof they live at the residence. Examples are: utility bill, mortgage statement, rental agreement, cable bill, etc. Residents would also be required to show proof of current registration for the vehicle (Municipal Ordinance requires vehicles parked on the roadway to have valid registration). Permits would be issued and tracked by Community Development and enforced by Brighton Police.
Proposed parking permits are designed to hang on the rear-view mirror for easy identification when conducting enforcement. This also allows them to easily be transferable to other vehicles residents own (purchasing a new vehicle). A stick on permit would not be able to be transferred. The new permits are not easily duplicated. Other cities which utilize parking permit areas around schools include: Northglenn, Littleton, Broomfield, Parker, and Boulder.
If permitted parking restrictions are reenacted, signage would also have to be installed. The Public Works Operation Department reviewed the options for the identified area and provided estimates for fabrication and installation of restricted or no parking signage as well as striping or “no parking” painted curb indicators. If parking restrictions are approved, the Public Works Operation Department would recommend signage only and no striping or painted curbs.
Implementing permitted parking or striping in the immediate area around the school will push the problem out to the surrounding streets and other residents. A determination would have to be made as to how far the program would be implemented and whether other areas of the City would benefit from this type of program as all residents have equal rights of representation.
Community Development has advised the issue of determining unpermitted driveways is cost and resource prohibitive. Permitting regulations have changed throughout the years and not all have been documented. Determining which regulations were in place at the time each driveway was created is not realistic nor feasible. This would also be a review targeting one area of the city, or one community, and would not be an equitable option provided for other residents.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
There is a financial impact to the city if the permitted process is implemented again. The financial impact is for the initial procurement of parking passes and a tracking log for the issuance of passes. This cost is estimated at $4100.00 for the initial batch of passes. This does not include the cost of configuration for OpenGov to make the GIS program required work with their existing programs. There will also be a cost for the time and salary for community development staff to maintain permits as well as police department staff to enforce the parking restrictions.
The cost of striping or “No Parking” paint on curbs is estimated at $8,000. This would increase if other areas in the City request similar provisions and would need to be repeated over time with wear and weather.
The cost of “No Parking” signage fabrication and installation of signage is estimated at $12,800. This would also increase if other areas in the City request similar provisions.
OPTIONS FOR COUNCIL CONSIDERATION
1) Take no action and maintain unrestricted parking around Brighton High School and allow any vehicle with valid registration to legally park in the area.
2) Make a motion to move forward with a permitted parking program for residents around Brighton High School.
3) Make a motion to move forward with a striping program for streets around Brighton High School to designate appropriate parking spots and allow any vehicle with valid registration to legally park in the area.
STAFF RECOMMENDATION
Staff seeks the direction of council on how they wish to proceed regarding residential parking restrictions around Brighton High School.
ATTACHMENTS
● Obsolete Brighton Police Department Policy 318
● Map indicating current parking restrictions around Brighton High School
● Brighton Resident Parking Permit
● Brighton Guest Parking Permit
● Proposed Brighton Resident and Guest Parking Permit
● Parking Permit Log Book
● Parking Proposal PowerPoint Presentation