Boulder, CO Parking Rules: Preferential Parking Districts (2026)

Boulder creates neighborhood permit parking zones under Section 2-2-15, "Neighborhood Permit Parking Zones," the city's version of a preferential parking district. The council's findings recite that a zone reduces hazardous traffic, protects children and pedestrians, shields residential blocks from polluted air, noise and trash, and preserves property values, while also acknowledging that some residential streets serve an important nonresident parking function the zone must still accommodate. The city manager runs an annual "Priority Based Neighborhood Access Management" study, weighing parking occupancy, trip generation and access to other travel modes for every zone or neighborhood in the city, and sets each zone's restricted hours and days; restrictions never apply on Sundays or holidays unless a manager regulation exempts them.

A petition needs signatures from twenty-five adult residents before the manager will prepare a zone proposal specifying boundaries, restricted hours, and any nonresident permit terms; the Transportation Advisory Board then holds a public hearing and recommends whether to establish, modify or reject it, and the manager reports the final plan to city council, which can call it up for its own hearing within thirty days. " Section 4-23-2 caps resident permits at one per person and one per vehicle, with an exception allowing up to three permits for a dwelling unit housing a licensed cooperative-housing group.

Businesses automatically get three employee permits regardless of staff size, or more under a formula tied to full-time-equivalent employees minus onsite off-street spaces. on a weekday (fifteen percent on the Goss-Grove blocks). The Chautauqua leasehold area is carved out entirely and instead runs under its own Section 2-2-21 plan.