Locals fought against paid parking at this St. George business park — and won

St. George businesses have said no to what some view as “California paid parking.”

A handful of businesses affected by a short-lived parking system at Ancestor Square in downtown St. George successfully lobbied the Ancestor Square’s Owners Association Board to remove parking signs just months after the signs went up over Labor Day weekend.

Business owners are celebrating. They said shoppers had stayed away because of the parking signs.

“Now we’ve got our regulars who come in and notice that the signs have been taken down. And so it is fun to tell them, like, ‘Hey, we won,’” said Shevelle Vogel, an employee at George’s Corner Restaurant.

Now that parking is free again, Cora Boutique owner Celece Krieger wants to invite shoppers back to Ancestor Square. “Come back downtown and support our small local businesses. I mean this square is kind of like the heart and soul of our downtown, and we just appreciate local support.”

Backlash to the signs

Parking signs were first posted on Labor Day weekend, noting that the first three hours of parking were free from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and that drivers had to register their vehicles. A new $10 overnight parking fee was also implemented.

Krieger said the signs were put up to stop people parking overnight and stop employees from parking in customer parking.

But she saw people expressing distaste for the paid parking on the St. George Word of Mouth Facebook page and blaming the shops.

“And before you know it, everybody on that thread is commenting, ‘Oh, we’re boycotting those businesses,’ ‘How greedy of the businesses,’ blaming us, thinking that we were doing it for revenue reasons, which is absolutely not true,” Krieger said.

Kylee Ross, a manager at Bee Sweet Ice Cream & Coffee Shop, added that some people said Ancestor Square was turning into “California paid parking.”

She said Bee Sweet had fewer customers when the signs were up. “We walk around with ice cream samples and usually people are walking around, taking their time, but when we were handing out samples, [people] were rushing to their cars trying to leave before they had to pay.”

Because customers like to make an afternoon of shopping, three hours wasn’t enough to get lunch, get their hair done and a manicure, and shop, Krieger said. “You could definitely see the change, and it was really hard to face that every day,” she said.

George’s Corner owner Nicki Richards said the situation was untenable. “It was heartbreaking because I’ve always viewed Ancestor Square as the heart and soul of our downtown, and to have a group of locals boycott Ancestor Square because they thought we were implementing the parking was heartbreaking.”

Who made the decision?

Rize Capital, a privately-held real estate development firm based in St. George, owns over 20 units at Ancestor Square. In a statement to The Southern Utah Tribune, Rize president and co-founder Lyndi Rose said the paid parking program was made by the Square’s Owners Association Board, of which she is a member.

The decision was made “after many years of struggling with employees filling customer parking stalls, as well as non-patrons using the lot, including neighborhood overflow parking and hotel guests seeking to avoid fees at the property across the street.”

“The intent was never to charge customers,” she wrote. “Visitors received three free hours of parking, and validations were available for longer visits. The goal was simply to improve customer access for all businesses in the Square by encouraging employees and non-patrons to park in appropriate areas.”

Losing customers and money

Business owners decided to fight back. Several banded together to get the signs removed by expressing concerns in two board meetings, Richards said.

Krieger said owners told the board they were losing customers and money. Richards said by the end of September, business was down 10% to 20%.

“We went to the board meeting and there were several of the business owners there to talk about the problems with the paid parking, first of all, the fact that we did not know about it… Secondly, it was three hours free, but you still had to register your car. So that came with a lot of confusion,” Krieger said. To register, customers gave information like their license plate and names.

Businesses also agreed to tell employees to park on the street, the dirt lot on St. George Blvd. or in a nearby parking garage. The signs came down after the second meeting in late October. “We came together as a group of businesses and we fought it,” Richards said.

Rize Capital’s Rose said that while she “supported the intention behind the program, it became clear that it was too contentious for some tenants and board members, and the Association ultimately decided to discontinue it. Rize is one of many condo owners in Ancestor Square and did not implement, operate, or manage the parking system.”

Now that the parking signs have been taken down, Ross said she sees more people walking around the square.

“We did receive some apologies in the [board] meeting… I’m just grateful that we could come together, talk about it, and that there was a resolution that worked for the businesses," Krieger said.