Project will change street parking throughout downtown

A plan to reconfigure parking along the historic district stretch of Nevada Way has taken a big step forward as a request for bids on the work is currently out and expected to close on May 8.

“The Nevada Way Reconstruction Project was posted on April 10, 2025, with the center parking design that had the support of majority of the business owners that had responded at the time,” Gary Poindexter, director of public works, said in an email statement.

“We’re in discussion with some of the business owners/property owners on making some changes to the southeast side curb and gutter, which will add two feet of additional sidewalk on that side but will not change our goal of ADA compliance on either side. The bid close date is May 8, 2025 which will then need to go to council for award. If awarded by council, we hope to start construction on July 7, 2025. Per the business owners, July is a slower time of the year, and our goal is to have Nevada Way from Wyoming to Colorado completed prior to the end of September and the start of the event season in Boulder City.”

To unpack all of that…

A description of the project has been posted on a web service where contractors can get info and submit bids to do the work. As noted, that process closes on May 8. After that, the bids will be evaluated by city staff and one or more will be forwarded to the city council for their approval. Given the short timeline, the most probable sequence of events would have the contract or contracts presented to the council later this month.

The vote is, “Currently planned for May 27,” Poindexter confirmed. “Anything after that could affect our construction start date of July 7 and completion before the end of September.”

While the project will stretch from Wyoming all the way to Colorado, Poindexter confirmed that the stretch between Arizona and Colorado is only being repaved and that the major parking changes only affect the area between Wyoming and Arizona.

However, other streets will be affected. Both Arizona and Ash will maintain their current parallel-to-the-curb parking arrangement, but according to the plans, both streets will be divided into established parking slots separated by white painted lines as is the case on Ash right now. However, Poindexter said in an email that they may not paint parking spot lines on Arizona.

There is also a big change coming along Wyoming with the current parallel-to-the-curb arrangement giving way to head-in or diagonal parking as is the current arrangement along Nevada Way. According to the plans provided by the city, this will necessitate removing the current center median along Wyoming and replacing that with a solid white painted line. Poindexter confirmed that the changes will go down to Avenue C, but between Avenues B and C, diagonal parking will only be added on the business side and the residential side will remain unchanged.

Poindexter also provided additional info regarding the trees along Nevada Way, a number of which will be removed in order to widen the sidewalk.

“Another item to note that is also important to all of us are festive trees along Nevada Way,” he said in an email. “Some trees will be removed, however we do plan on installing trees on the center islands as you’ll see in the plans and all the trees will have festive lighting on Nevada Way from Wyoming to Colorado. Currently seven trees within that stretch do not have lights on them.”

Festival gates are slated to be installed at Wyoming and Arizona that will allow Nevada Way between those streets to be closed off to automobile access during events.

There is one more meeting scheduled with business owners on Thursday (today). Poindexter said that the meeting, “is to discuss the project timeline and any other concerns from the business owners that we can address prior to construction. This will also give another chance for the owners to voice their concerns with the design.” However, as previously noted, the design has already gone out to bid.

Long time coming

This is likely an issue that has not been on the radar of most BC residents, which may be because it’s been brewing under the radar since the time that most people were still wearing masks to go into the businesses along Nevada Way. The funding was approved before any of the current city council members were even elected.

Back in fiscal year 2021 (which began in June of 2020), the city accepted funding via the Regional Transportation Commission for rehabilitation of the historic stretch of Nevada Way between Wyoming on the west and Arizona on the east.

In August of 2021, the council hired consulting firm GCW to provide engineering services. Later in 2021, GCW conducted an informational public meeting to gather input. The council got an update in August of 2022 in which they identified issues to be addressed, including ADA-compliant parking, EV charging stations and “sidewalk conformity.”

Joe Yatson of GCW pointed out in a meeting last year that the parking along Nevada Way does not comply with the city’s current parking standards, which call for a 19-foot depth and a 13-foot width. The current spaces are about 16 feet deep and 12 and a half feet wide. Yatson also said that soon-to-be-adopted ADA rules call for at least four feet of unobstructed pedestrian access on sidewalks. That is also the city standard for an encroachment license that allows businesses to have tables and chairs on the sidewalk, but compliance is spotty.

“We went out there and measured and with all of the chairs pushed in under the tables, access ranges from three and a half to four and a half feet. So, even with no one sitting in the chairs, it does not meet the new standards,” Yatson noted.

Notably, there has been no public discussion of this issue in almost a year and the only time it will be on the council’s agenda will be for approval of the contract, which is often something that happens as part of the council’s consent agenda and is done without discussion.

Last year, the discussion was mostly about making sure that residents and business owners understand that the city has little choice here. If outdoor tables are to remain, the sidewalks have to be widened in order to make sure that the city is in compliance with federal ADA law. Being out of compliance can result in significant fines.

Councilman Steve Walton seemed to sum up the feelings of the council about balancing the need for parking along the street with the legal requirements for pedestrian access when he said, “I don’t know that there is a single great answer for this. Unfortunately, we have to choose the best that we can with the least negative changes.”

Councilwoman Cokie Booth said that she had recently been in Pismo Beach, Calif. and that they had converted one street to the center parking. “It looks strange and change is always hard,” she noted but also said that it might be a good option because it would preserve a larger number of parking spots while also widening sidewalks so businesses would not be at risk of losing their outdoor seating.