Attachment E - Fox Tuttle Parking Analysis Sept 2025

MEMORANDUM

To:

Samantha Bromberg – City of Boulder Sr Project Manager

From:

Scott Kilgore, PE – Transportation Engineer

Date:

September 16, 2025

Project:

Downtown Boulder Hotel Parking Study

Subject:

Hotel Project Parking Demand Analysis

The City of Boulder has a number of public parking facilities in downtown Boulder including multiple parking garages and surface parking lots. The City is proposing to redevelop the Spruce surface lot, located at the northwest corner of Broadway and Spruce Street, with a hotel. Fox Tuttle Transportation Group (Fox Tuttle) has prepared this analysis in support of the Spruce Lot redevelopment to understand the current usage of parking facilities in the area, whether the displaced demand from the Spruce Lot can be accommodated in nearby facilities, and if the estimated parking demand from a new hotel can be accommodated in existing parking facilities. Parking Data Collection The City of Boulder uses advanced technology to manage parking payment and enforcement at City-owned parking facilities. The parking lots and garages have digital payment systems which record transactions in real time. License plate readers at garages monitor the entry and exit of every vehicle, allowing for real-time recording of the occupancy of garages. At surface lots, drivers pay to park using kiosks or mobile payment. The record of payments includes the time of payment and the duration of stay a driver pays for. From this information, the occupancy of surface lots can be inferred. Four separate parking facilities were analyzed in this study including the Spruce Lot and the three nearest parking garages. The three parking garages included are the Spruce Garage (located at 11th Street and Spruce Street), the Randolph Center Garage (located at 11 th Street and Walnut

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Street), and the St. Julien Garage (located at 10th Street and Walnut Street). A map of the four facilities is shown in Figure 1. These facilities were selected because they are predicted to be the most attractive locations to absorb the Spruce Lot parking demand as they are closest to the Spruce Lot and do not require crossing Broadway, a major arterial in the City of Boulder. Figure 1: Vicinity Map

City of Boulder staff gathered one year of data for all four parking facilities analyzed. Data from June 1, 2024 through May 31, 2025 were provided for analysis. Fox Tuttle compiled individual transactions to develop a real-time summary of parking occupancy for every 15 minutes over the year of data provided. Parking Supply and Utilization The supply of parking in each of the study facilities along with the observed occupancy is shown in Table 1. Occupancy was calculated for every 15 minutes over the year of data provided. The

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maximum occupancy for each day was then used to determine percentiles of maximum daily occupancy.

Facility Capacity th 75 Percentile Max Occupancy 80th Percentile Max Occupancy 85th Percentile Max Occupancy 90th Percentile Max Occupancy 95th Percentile Max Occupancy

Table 1: Parking Supply and Maximum Daily Occupancy Randolph Spruce Lot Spruce Garage Garage 59 392 273

St. Julien Garage 500

64

324

192

203

66

333

197

217

67

345

206

237

68

359

214

263

70

392

225

309

The absolute maximum occupancy observed exceeded the available parking capacity for all four facilities. It is possible for the momentary occupancy to exceed the parking supply in the garages due to vehicles entering and looking for parking when a facility is already full. The Randolph Garage exceeded capacity only once in the year of data and the St. Julien Garage exceeded capacity only twice in the year of data. The Spruce Garage has higher occupancy and exceeded capacity 17 days in the year of data. In the Spruce Lot, the observed occupancy frequently exceeds capacity. This is because of the way vehicles are tracked in the Spruce Lot. In the garages, the license plate reader systems capture the moment vehicles enter and exit. Drivers pay for the time their vehicle was in the garage upon exiting. In the Spruce Lot, drivers pay for parking time up front. Upon parking, drivers pay for the amount of time they expect to be in the lot. Many drivers end up paying for more time than they use, so their recorded parking session may overlap with another driver who parks in the same parking space. Therefore, the occupancy data for the Spruce lot showing more vehicles than parking spaces does not reflect the same trend as the parking garages where occupancy exceeds capacity due to circulating vehicles. The timing of when maximum occupancy occurs each day shows a difference in the relative usage of the studied parking facilities. As shown in Figure 2, the Spruce Lot and Spruce Garage more often experience peak occupancy midday. The Randolph Garage experiences peak occupancy more frequently in the evening. The St. Julien Garage is more evenly split than other facilities whether peak occupancy occurs midday or in the evening.

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Figure 2: Frequency of Peak Occupancy Hour by Parking Facility 180

Number of Days per Year

160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0

Hour of Peak Occupancy Spruce Lot

Spruce Garage

Randolph Garage

St. Julien Garage

Considering the information presented in Figure 2 along with Table 1, several conclusions become apparent. For example, the Spruce Garage is full at 95 th percentile occupancy, which most often occurs during the midday hour starting at 1:00 PM. The Randolph Garage experiences its peak occupancy most frequently in the 6:00 PM hour, with 95 th percentile occupancy 48 vehicles under capacity. The St. Julien Garage experiences peak occupancy more evenly between the 1:00PM and 6:00PM hours and has parking spaces available at 95 th percentile maximum daily occupancy. Displacement of Spruce Lot Parking With redevelopment of the Spruce Lot, the parking demand currently served by the lot is expected to be pushed to the nearby parking facilities. The three nearest parking garages analyzed show excess parking supply is available to accommodate the parking demand from the Spruce Lot. It was conservatively assumed that the peak demand of the Spruce Lot is the full capacity of the lot, and all 59 vehicles would need to be absorbed by the three nearby garages. As shown in Table 1, the peak daily occupancy of garages near the Spruce Lot is generally below the available capacity (with the exception of the Spruce Garage about 5% of the time). The full year of available data was used to develop an understanding of how the maximum daily occupancy fluctuates. Percentiles of peak occupancy are shown in Table 1 to indicate how much peak

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occupancy changes throughout the year and illustrate a sense of how much parking is generally available at differing levels of demand. A summary of the amount of available parking across facilities at different percentiles of observed occupancy is shown in Table 2. The available parking in each facility at a given percentile of observed occupancy is listed as well as a total across all three garage facilities surveyed. Table 2: Available Parking by Percentile of Maximum Daily Occupancy Randolph Facility Spruce Garage St. Julien Garage Total Garage Available Parking at 75th Percentile 68 81 297 446 Occupancy Available Parking at 80th Percentile 59 76 283 418 Occupancy Available Parking at 85th Percentile 47 67 263 377 Occupancy Available Parking at 90th Percentile 33 59 251 343 Occupancy Available Parking at 95th Percentile 0 48 191 239 Occupancy Excess parking is available in the three nearby garages beyond the 95 th percentile of the maximum daily occupancy. The parking supply within the studied facilities is adequate to absorb an additional demand of up to 59 vehicles from the displacement of parking demand from the Spruce Lot above 95th percentile occupancy at all three surveyed garages. The availability of garage parking increases moving further from the Spruce Lot. The Spruce Garage, located across Spruce Street from the Spruce Lot, has the least number of available parking spaces at a given percentile of maximum daily demand. The next closest option at the Randolph Garage has slightly more parking availability, with the St. Julien Garage having the most parking available at a given percentile of maximum daily demand. It is expected that the removal of the Spruce Lot will shift more demand to the closest and highest utilized parking garages. Between the Spruce Garage, Randolph Garage, and St. Julien Garage, there is enough excess capacity to serve the displaced demand of the Spruce Lot even if all three garages are experiencing 95th percentile maximum daily demand at the same time.

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Based on the typical timing of peak demand as shown in Figure 2 across the year of data analyzed, the observed parking facilities do not have the same peak demand patterns throughout the day. The removal of the Spruce Lot will displace the most parking demand to other facilities during the midday peak hours. The Spruce Garage is the nearest alternate facility to absorb displaced demand from the Spruce Lot and also experiences peak demand most frequently during the midday hours. As shown in Table 2, the Spruce Garage has the least number of available parking spaces at a given percentile occupancy than the other parking garages surveyed. The Randolph Garage is the next closest facility and experiences peak occupancy midday less frequently than the Spruce Garage. The Randolph Garage has more available parking at a given percentile occupancy than the Spruce Garage. Therefore, the Spruce Garage is expected to continue to experience high occupancy during the midday peak times as parking demand is displaced by the removal of the Spruce Lot. Should the Spruce Garage reach capacity, the Randolph Garage is the next closest facility to absorb parking demand in the area and does not experience peak occupancy during midday hours as often as the Spruce Garage. The observed peak time occupancy of the study facilities indicates that usage across the four facilities is not even throughout the day and that the displaced Spruce Lot parking demand most frequently will impact the midday peak hours, which may result in the Spruce Garage reaching capacity more frequently during the midday peak. The displaced demand from the Spruce Lot is expected to increase spillover parking demand to the further facilities when the Spruce Garage reaches capacity. Future Condition with Hotel Development The redevelopment of the Spruce Lot is planned to replace the surface parking lot with a new hotel. The project is in the planning phase and a specific site plan has not been determined yet. This study is meant to support the hotel development by analyzing the available parking supply in the area to assist with decision-making around the provision of parking on the future hotel site. As described in Table 2, there is excess available parking to absorb the displaced Spruce Lot parking demand of 59 vehicles in the three nearest parking garages even at times with very high utilization of all three garages. At 95th percentile peak daily demand in all three nearby garages, a total of 239 parking spaces are available between the three garages. After the 59 displaced vehicles from the Spruce Lot are served there would still be an excess of 180 parking spaces in the condition where all three garages are experiencing 95 th percentile occupancy at the same time. Based on the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Parking Generation Manual, 6th Edition hotel uses (ITE land use code #310) have an average parking demand of 0.65 parking spaces per hotel room. Previous work completed by Fox Tuttle for the City of Boulder included a comprehensive review of the utilization of parking for a multitude of land uses within the City. That project included data collection at two hotels in the City across multiple years. The average observed parking demand for these hotel sites was 0.53 vehicles per hotel room.

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The City of Boulder has placed an emphasis on multimodal transportation options within the City, and particularly within downtown Boulder. Downtown Boulder is very well served by transit options and boasts a robust network of high comfort bicycle and pedestrian facilities. The Spruce Lot location has a 99 walk score, 96 bike score, and 58 transit score (out of 100) from walkscore.com. Based on the characteristics of the area, it is presumed that a hotel on the Spruce Lot property will achieve a higher than average level of multimodal transportation. Based on the excellent multimodal access of the Spruce Lot location, and the lower than average parking demand observed at hotels in Boulder, it is conservatively assumed that a new hotel replacing the Spruce Lot is estimated to produce a parking demand of 0.5 vehicles per hotel room. At this rate, the most conservative estimate of 180 vacant parking spaces across the three garage facilities (if all are full to 95th percentile occupancy and the maximum Spruce Lot demand is accommodated) could theoretically support 360 hotel rooms at peak parking demand. It should be noted that the St. Julien hotel has 200 rooms and sits on a larger site than the Spruce Lot, so there is adequate parking available in the three garages to absorb demand from a hotel on the site of the Spruce Lot. Taking into account the distribution of parking usage across the day, the available parking is predicted to support an even higher number of hotel rooms. The frequency of maximum observed parking occupancy by hour is shown in Figure 2 for all four surveyed parking facilities. The ITE hourly parking demand from land use #310 Hotel is shown in Table 4. The midday peak hour (1:00 PM) is the most frequent time of peak occupancy in the Spruce Lot, Spruce Garage and St. Julien Garage. The Randolph Garage experiences peak occupancy most frequently at 6:00 PM in the evening peak hour. The peak hours of existing parking demand in the surveyed facilities align with periods when hotel uses are expected to generate as much as 61 percent of peak demand in the midday peak hour and as much as 66 percent of peak demand in the evening peak hour. Because the peak hours of existing usage and the expected peak hours of the hotel use do not align, it is expected that at minimum, an additional 33% of hotel rooms can be supported compared to the most conservative estimate of 360 hotel rooms to be supported by the existing parking supply. Therefore, it is conservatively predicted that 479 hotel rooms can theoretically be accommodated by the existing parking supply assuming that all parking facilities are filled to their 95 th percentile capacity plus the full displaced Spruce Lot demand.

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Table 4: ITE #310 Hotel Hourly Distribution of Parking Demand Percent of Peak Parking Demand Hour Beginning Weekday Saturday 12:00 – 4:00 AM 100 100 5:00 AM 6:00 AM 90 80 7:00 AM 90 81 8:00 AM 90 80 9:00 AM 80 79 10:00 AM 74 70 11:00 AM 67 65 12:00 PM 65 61 1:00 PM 61 57 2:00 PM 59 48 3:00 PM 58 50 4:00 PM 61 55 5:00 PM 60 59 6:00 PM 62 66 7:00 PM 65 76 8:00 PM 70 76 9:00 PM 75 78 10:00 PM 88 87 11:00 PM 97 95 Note: Bold hours align with peak occupancy periods in the observed parking facilities.

Conclusions This study analyzed a year of parking data from June 1, 2024 to May 31, 2025 for four parking facilities in downtown Boulder including the Spruce Lot, Spruce Garage, Randolph Garage, and St. Julien Garage. The maximum daily occupancy of all four facilities across the full year of data was summarized for several percentiles. At 95th percentile maximum daily occupancy for all three of the garages, there is enough excess parking available to accommodate the full capacity of the Spruce Lot that is planned for removal. At peak midday times, most of the available parking supply is at the Randolph Garage and St. Julien Garage, which are three and four blocks away from the Spruce Lot, respectively. The already highly-utilized Spruce Garage can expect to experience additional demand most frequently during midday peaks with the removal of the Spruce Lot. The construction of a hotel in place of the Spruce Lot will further increase the demand for parking within downtown Boulder. This study quantified the amount of excess parking anticipated after the displaced demand from the Spruce Lot is accommodated in existing facilities. At 95 th percentile

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maximum daily occupancy for all three garages, plus the full capacity of the Spruce Lot, there are estimated to be 180 parking spaces available to serve a hotel use on the former site of the Spruce Lot. Based on local data, the available parking with all facilities at 95 th percentile maximum daily occupancy is enough to serve demand for a new hotel in place of the Spruce Lot. It should be noted that these estimates conservatively assume that all parking facilities experience 95 th percentile maximum daily occupancy at the same time. Reviewing the distribution of peak times at the study facilities show that they have different trends in the times of day they reach peak occupancy. Additionally, the utilization of the surveyed facilities shows that the availability of parking is greater at the facilities further from the Spruce Lot. Especially during the most frequent peak time at midday, there may not be available parking at the nearby Spruce Garage for the new hotel. If the City wishes to guarantee parking for the hotel at the Spruce Garage, reserving some of the Spruce Garage capacity for the hotel could be considered, with the acknowledgment that reserving capacity in the highly-utilized Spruce Garage will likely cause increased spillover of parking demand to the Randolph Garage and St. Julien Garage. Fox Tuttle staff hope that the analysis provided in the technical memorandum are helpful in determining future needs for parking as land use evolves in downtown Boulder. We appreciate our partnership with the City of Boulder and look forward to continuing our work together in the future. /SK