CALDWELL, Idaho — Indian Creek Plaza in Caldwell has seen rapid growth in the last couple of years.
Bond & Bevel’s Coffee Shop Owner Heath Albers said; “The town is changing and growing so fast. I think they're doing the best and bringing the new in and keeping the old.”
Adding to that growth is having to pay for parking starting at the end of the year.
City of Caldwell’s Economic Development Director Steven Jenkins said, " We focused on meters, primarily on the core of downtown, as opposed to some of the peripheral areas." “
Jenkins adds the change was largely due to cars overstaying in parking spots, which limited the number of cars cycling through downtown. He said this change will help benefit local businesses.
“To help support the turnover of vehicles, and allow those businesses downtown to do business, and to have vehicles or parking spaces available for their customers to come in and partake in their business activities,” said Jenkins.
It’s a change some businesses like Bond & Bevel agree will help bring in more business to the area.
"I see a lot is people just parking and they stay, and which is fine. We want people to come and partake. But we need to have some cycling of customers because there is a premium downtown,” Albers said.
Albers interacts with community members on a regular basis, but he said not everyone is on board with the new plan.
“I think there's feelings of frustration on many sides,” Albers said. “There's a mixed bag of kind of seeing the point of having metered and kind of concerned it might kill the drive to come down.
Jenkins said they are working on rolling out the first phase to help address these concerns.
"Allow it to work, work through the community and obviously get the community used to the concept of paid parking, and then we would continue to grow upon what we've established,” said Jenkins.
He adds the plan started with charging $1.50 per hour to now scaling back.
"We want to enhance surveillance, we want to improve lighting services downtown, those types of things. So, we just want to continue to make sure that it continues to go back into downtown Caldwell,” said Jenkins.
Jenkins said the plan includes using the money gathered by the meters to help make improvements downtown.
"We want to enhance surveillance, we want to improve lighting services downtown, those types of things. So, we just want to continue to make sure that it continues to go back into downtown Caldwell,” Jenkins said.
With Caldwell’s Winter Wonderland right around the corner, those not wanting to pay will still have options.
"So we have options, I think if you want to come downtown, and you don't want to pay, then there's areas of downtown where you can park and you can just walk into the interior,” Jenkins said.
As Caldwell continues to grow, Jenkins said they will always keep their community in mind.
“We're going to continue to work through the challenges that we have And we're just excited to see where the new developments in the new season of Caldwell is going to lead us,” Jenkins said.
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