Morrison will not get a new parking lot for now because the Town Board and a business owner have different ideas of what the lot would entail.

In addition, the board believes getting downtown employees to park in outlying lots and providing better information to tourists about available spots will go a long way to solve parking issues.

However, Dave Killingsworth, who owns The Holiday Bar and made the parking lot proposal, said he was disappointed with the board’s stance.

“This is an emergency, and folks are really suffering,” he told the board. “Some businesses may close. We are trying to get by for a while. … I’m looking for something that helps people, for the whole town, for everybody. There is a dearth of parking here, and we’ve been talking about it (for years) … but nobody has done anything about it.”

The board on March 16 decided not to act on Killingsworth’s proposal for a 10-year lease for what is known as the Jones property west of downtown Morrison and south of Highway 74. He wanted to pave, and put lighting and fencing in the lot along with a path to connect it to Union Avenue.

He also asked that the costs he incurred to create the lot be repaid by the town on an amortized basis if the town decided to take back the land. Town officials have talked about turning the 2-acre property into a community garden or eventually moving Town Hall there.

Board members in February discussed allowing business owners to turn the land into a less permanent parking area because they didn’t want the town to take on the challenges and expense of creating the lot itself.

“I was shocked at a proposed 10-year amortized program,” Trustee Katie Gill said. “I was considering a six-month lease with rudimentary improvement with no paving and no lights.”

Several residents of Red Rocks Vista Drive, which is south of the proposed lot, voiced concern about the proposal, asking the Town Board to say no. They said lighting would be a nuisance, and the lot would become a place for people to have parties after Red Rocks concerts rather than being used for its intended purpose to bolster downtown businesses.

They said once the land was turned into a lot, it would be hard to reclaim it for other uses. They also said the estimated 8-minute walk time to downtown was too far, especially for families.

Business owners in downtown Morrison have attended Town Board meetings for the last several months, asking for help with parking. They say people who can’t find parking will leave, not spending money in shops and restaurants that need a prosperous summer to recuperate from the awful year they just had.

Gill headed up a committee that looked at the number of parking spaces available in and near downtown. It found 501 spaces, which is about 10 spaces for every 1,000 square feet of commercial space.

“Just looking at the numbers, we look like we have a pretty strong parking asset in our town,” Gill said in February, “but we acknowledge that the businesses do not feel the numbers reflect the needs in our town.”

Board members, who agreed that they support businesses and empathize with their issues, said other options have not been exhausted before they would consider the lot: getting businesses to have employees park in outlying lots and having better signage indicating parking availability. They said they would work on a better map on the town website and an app to help guide tourists to parking.

In addition, board members said constituents didn’t like the idea.

“I have not heard a single voter express support for this parking lot,” Trustee Paul Sutton said. “We take seriously trying to work with the businesses, but we have not heard any voters supporting this proposal, so I see no reason to support it.”

Killingsworth suggested he would buy the property from the town, which purchased it in 2019 for $415,000, to which Mayor Sean Forey responded, “We are not interested in selling the property.”