Preliminary results show Manitou Springs voters have rejected an effort by the city government to dissolve the Metropolitan District, a special district formed in 1989 to solve a downtown parking shortage. City Council voted to apply for dissolution of the district in February, and in December an El Paso County judge ordered a special election to decide the fate of the district. Early results show 30 votes in favor of dissolution and 46 votes against.
The effort to dissolve the district came after friction between the City and the Metro District over newly renovated bathrooms and amenities the City provided.
“With this new management with the Metro, somebody – as I’m sure you know – authorized the closure of this very expensive bathroom, took away the benches, took away the trash cans,” said Manitou Springs resident and downtown business owner Mike Casey during a Feb. 11 City Council meeting. “Even the poop bags are gone. It seems to me that there’s some bad blood, for lack of a better term.”
Then-mayor John Graham acknowledged the acrimonious relationship with the Metro District. “The relationship has been a little contentious for some time,” he said. “It’s sort of devolved … I think certainly the idea of closing the bathroom was something City Council didn’t anticipate. We had allocated funds to have those bathrooms made ADA-compliant, the bathrooms in the Wichita Lot, and I think it’s an important part of our role … to be a hospitable community, to provide … access to public restrooms, so we thought we were doing the right thing by making them ADA-compliant.”
Had the election been successful, City Council was planning on the creation of a Downtown Benefit Parking Program within 30 days of the election. According to a resolution passed in January, the Program would have been for residents living on Manitou Avenue, Park Avenue, Canon Avenue, Ruxton Avenue, Lafayette Road, and Lovers Lane, who do not qualify for a current Resident Parking Program (RPP) zone. The Downtown Benefit Parking Program would have also been available to downtown business employees, and would have allowed downtown residential permit holders to park in the City’s Canon lot free of charge. The Downtown Benefit Parking Program would have also enabled downtown residential permit holders to park on Manitou Avenue, Park Avenue, and Canon Avenue from 5 p.m. through 10 a.m. the following day free of charge in areas that are not already designated as RPP zones. Employees of downtown businesses could have obtained permits allowing them to park in the Canon lot free of charge from 5 p.m. through 10 a.m. the following day, as part of the Downtown Benefit Parking Program.
This special election marks the second electoral defeat for Manitou’s government. During the Nov. 4, 2025 regular election, voters rejected an effort introduced by then-Councilor (now Mayor) Natalie Johnson and Councilor John Shada to increase the City’s excise tax on ticket sales and admission fees to address the City’s projected $4.3 million budget shortfall due to the decline in recreational marijuana sales.
Johnson did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
