Cheyenne Police Department revamps parking enforcement

The police department inherited two city parking employees, who are now sworn community service officers, to conduct enforcement downtown. In addition, the department restructured internally and put one of its existing employees in charge of parking.

This shift hasn’t cost the department any money, Police Chief Brian Kozak said. The department inherited the budget for the two employees from the city into its budget, and it hasn’t had to add any new positions for parking.

“I think the goal, which I think has been accomplished, has been consistency across downtown,” City Council President Rocky Case said.

When everyone knows the parking limit is two hours, people shouldn’t be surprised, he added.

But there are some drawbacks to the strict two-hour limits, he said. Some of the retail areas, including near restaurants like 2 Doors Down and Sanford’s Grub & Pub, need the spots open during the lunch period, but sometimes spots aren’t always available.

CPD made big efforts to restructure the way parking enforcement was done in the city, Malatesta said, to make sure certain people or places weren’t getting special treatment. This way, parking is equitably enforced.

Case said he knows in the past during certain mayoral administrations there were instances where companies or people were given certain parking privileges. He said he thinks it’s a good thing parking was consolidated; this way, people are all treated equally.

Despite these changes, no law or ordinances have changed in the city related to parking. People still get a $30 ticket if they go over the two-hour parking limit without moving their car 150 feet. If they park in a handicap spot, the ticket goes up to $125.

The city also rolled out the ParkCheyenne app in May for paying to park in the city-owned garages. The fees for paying to park are still the same in the garages – $4 for a daily pass and $45 for a monthly pass.

The parking structures were paid for by a taxpayer bond. When people weren’t paying to park in the structure, the burden of paying those bonds went back to taxpayers, instead of the people using the garages – which was the way it was supposed to be.

Before, when parking was with the clerk’s office, people would have to drive to the clerk’s office to pick up a parking pass and then drive back to the garage to park – hoping their spot was still available.

“So you can imagine, people weren’t using it,” Malatesta said.

For example, in April only $32 was collected for parking in the garages, but since ParkCheyenne was rolled out, the amount people paid increased to $128 in May, $704 in July and $828 in August. These numbers don’t include the $45 monthly passes.

“More and more people are using it, and more and more people are becoming comfortable with it,” Malatesta said. “We’re enforcing it now, as well.”

Malatesta emphasized that parking is only enforced Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. So anyone wanting to go to restaurants or shops in the evening and on the weekend aren’t affected by parking time limits or fees.

The biggest thing for people to remember is to follow what’s on the parking sign. If it says there is a two-hour limit, people need to move their car after two hours, and if it says no parking, there’s no parking.

“What we’ve learned through this process is Cheyenne doesn’t have a parking problem – we have plenty of parking spots available,” Malatesta said. “Cheyenne doesn’t have a parking problem, it has a walking problem.”