During this week’s Manitou Springs City Council Meeting, Council approved two new ordinances and considered an updated fee schedule.
New ordinances
Council approved an ordinance that establishes a cost recovery mechanism for emergency and non-emergency services provided by the Manitou Springs Fire Department in response to motor vehicle accidents. Manitou Springs Fire Department Chief Keith Buckmiller clarified that the costs would be recovered from insurance companies, not individuals.
“We’re just trying to find a means by which we can recover from some of our high cost events that, presently, we’ve been eating the cost of,” said Buckmiller. “I know we had some conversations about how that would be billed. So, I’ll stress again that the insurance company only would be addressed in the billing process, not the occupant, not the driver – and if there’s an uninsured driver, there won’t be any bill generated.”
City Council also approved an ordinance to identify a method in the Municipal Code for the City to consider and continue to allow encroachments onto City right-of-way or city property that are inadvertent or have previously existed. All existing inadvertent encroachments will be reviewed and decided upon by City Council, and an appeal process has been added for all encroachment types that are decided administratively.
Fee increases on the way
Council will be considering an update to the City’s Universal Fee Schedule during the March 10 work session. The item was on Tuesday’s agenda, but Councilor Julie Wolfe raised concerns.
“It might work best at a work session rather than a meeting,” said Wolfe. “There are so many other things and a lot of them – even though I’ve been through this before – when I was reading the explanation, I still really wasn’t sure what it was about.”
Councilor Judith Chandler explained some of the fee increases. “There are some things obviously that we just need to raise,” she said. “You know, postage went up. So, you know, those are things that we just look at, and those just need to be increased.”
Newly-elected Councilor Gloria Latimer noted a marked increase in many fees. “It would be really helpful to me to have a rationale about some of the expenses, because particularly in event fees, or substantial increases in the Planning Department, there’s substantial increases.”
Manitou Springs Finance Director Rebecca Davis explained some of the increases. “For the planning department, I can say it’s based upon personnel hours, based upon what … salaries they make,” she said. “It’s really to recoup the cost of the personnel time and supplies, paper, et cetera.”
Latimer still had concerns. “Annexation went from – I think it’s $1,000 – to $8,000,” she said.
According to the updated fee schedule, annexations are assessed based on acreage, but all levels showed a fee increase. An annexation of 3 to 100 acres jumped from $1,650 to $4,000. An annexation of 101+ acres jumped from $1,900 to $8,000.
“I think there’s an opportunity for some really interesting discussion around, again, priorities and what taxpayer dollars go to support and all of those different things,” said Mayor Natalie Johnson. “I think it’s going to be interesting, and I look forward to it. I certainly look forward to getting input from the community as well.”
The increase in fees also raised concerns from event organizers in the community. “I’m writing to respectfully request reconsideration of the continued increases in the city’s event related fee schedule, particularly as they have now risen two years in a row,” said Jenna Wells, executive director of Manitou Springs, in a letter to Council read during the meeting by Johnson.
“Since 2024, the minor special event application has increased from $50 to $75 – again, 50% – and the major special event application has increased from $150 to $200; 33%.
Vendor fees have also escalated significantly. Vending permits were $11 per booth per day in late 2024 and the current $20 per booth per day represents an approximate 82% increase from that baseline. And even using the City’s year-over-year schedule, it is a $15 to $20, or 33% increase.
These increases place particular strain on long-standing community-defining nonprofit events such as Coffin Races, Carnival, and the Commonwheel Arts Festival, which are free to attend and rely on vendor participation and sponsorship to cover costs while driving shoppers and diners into downtown businesses. While some of these increases may appear modest in isolation, they are occurring alongside increases to vendor fees and application fees, and they stack up on top of other required costs as well. Event organizers are already facing significant inflationary pressure on costs that are necessary to operate safe, well-managed events, including service vendors and staffing costs, portable restrooms, trash, recycling and cleanup costs, traffic control support, cones, barricades, insurance, security, water services, and more.
In addition, the City’s costs for event support have also increased and continue to rise. The fee schedule includes hourly rates for City staffing and services including law enforcement, $75 per hour, parking enforcement, $50, and public works $50. By way of context, the Emma Crawford coffin races invoice from the city last year total $10,130 for required city services before accounting for other event operating costs.
When those service costs increase at the same time as application, vendor and rental fees, organizers are squeezed from multiple directions. With appreciation for the City’s budget realities and our shared goal of keeping events safe and successful, we respectfully ask that you please reconsider further increases to event fees for a second year in a row.”
The Manitou Springs City Council has a work session on Feb. 10 and its next regular meeting on Feb. 17. More information on the City’s website.
