CALDWELL, Idaho — Downtown Caldwell has become a popular destination for many to shop, stroll, and grab a bite to eat.
The small downtown area has seen an increase in visitors in recent years and parking is at a premium, meaning you may soon have to pay.
A recent bid was recently awarded to The Car Park, which would be responsible for managing parking in downtown Caldwell.
"The plan, as of now, is going to be putting some parking meters here in Downtown Caldwell," said Daniel Palomera, the Owner of Casa Añejo.
The City of Caldwell tells us for about a year they have been looking into maintaining a high-quality downtown area, and one of the areas that they saw needed improvement was parking. A recently conducted parking study identified the downtown area to benefit from metered parking.
"Primary is making sure that cars are properly circulating throughout our downtown core. We notice that there was quite a bit of stagnation downtown, as it relates to cars parking in stalls for an extended period," said Steven Jenkins, the Economic Development director for the City of Caldwell.
Based on a proposed plan for metering, the red zone would be $1.50 per hour and the blue zone would be $1 per hour.
Casa Añejo owner Palomera, who would be impacted by the parking in the area, says he is not opposed to the idea of instituting paid parking if it meant the flow of visitors would be circulating.
"I don't think it's a bad idea for a temporary relief of the problem," said Palomera.
Dawn Bashore, the owner of Fire and Ice Pottery Studio, doesn't think adding meters would solve the problem for her customers. She says parking impacts her customers the most when events block the roads.
“We have customers that can't walk long distances. So they can't come down and enjoy the businesses down here because they can't walk," said Bashore.
The economic development team is still evaluating how many meters will be needed but expects the project to be completed by the end of the year. The city is also planning to build a parking structure to help alleviate that need.
