An El Paso County judge has ordered an election in a municipal dispute over parking in Manitou Springs.

Earlier this year, the city initiated a legal process to dissolve an independent parking district that manages two downtown parking lots in Manitou Springs. The Manitou Springs Metropolitan District was created in 1989 by local merchants to redevelop and manage the Wichita and Smischny parking lots.

Metropolitan districts are quasi-governmental, usually created to provide public infrastructure or services. They operate separately from other entities like cities and counties.

The purpose of the Manitou Springs Metro District was “to promote easy and affordable means for people to visit downtown Manitou Springs businesses and spend time and money downtown,” according to court filings. The district is financed through taxes raised among residents and business owners within its borders.

For months, the city has been seeking to dissolve the district, though a municipality attempting to break up a metro district is an unusual legal case. The court required each entity to provide a plan for dissolution, which would then be subject to judicial review.

On Dec. 1, District Judge Eric Bentley ordered an election among the voters of the district on whether to approve or reject the dissolution plan created by the city. The district’s competing plan was rejected by the court for inclusion on the ballot.

In the order, the court ruled that the district’s plan “did not meet the applicable statutory requirements and could not be lawfully imposed or implemented.”

The order set the date for the election on March 3, 2026. The election is to be implemented by the metro district under court supervision. The district only holds 168 electors, according to court filings.

Sarah Brown, a consultant with the district, said they would contract a designated election official. In a written statement, she said there were no additional details to share yet on how the election will be run.

The relationship between the two governing bodies deteriorated last year, when an intergovernmental agreement for the city to provide maintenance at the district’s parking lots fell apart.

Without the maintenance agreement, the metro district closed the bathrooms at the Wichita lot, which Manitou Springs Mayor John Graham has previously said precipitated the city’s decision to start the dissolution process.

In court filings, the district has maintained that it has met its stated goals for providing parking and pedestrian access. In the latest competing dissolution plan it submitted, the district said it would require any dissolution to set up rules for the management of the parking lots, including limiting the use of parking revenue to maintenance or improvement of the district’s former assets.

The district claimed its interests are different from the city’s, serving only the downtown merchants who make up the district’s tax base.

“Fundamentally, the District and the City are two very different public entities with very different purposes and constituents,” read the court filing.

The city of Manitou Springs, in the proposed dissolution plan going to district voters, argues that merging the downtown parking lots with the city’s parking enterprise would increase efficiency and streamline policy across parking options.

The plan would require the city to continue operating Wichita and Smischny as parking lots for 10 years. Another property, the former Ute Pass Motel, was recently purchased by the district to be turned into parking. The city would reserve the ability to go ahead with the plan or sell the property to fund its parking enterprise within the district’s former boundaries.

The Manitou City Council on Tuesday voted to endorse a “yes” vote on dissolving the district.

“The city is in a far better position to provide or coordinate related amenities, such as restroom facilities and public transit services,” Graham read from the resolution.

Mike Graham, a metropolitan district director and brother of the mayor, declined comment on the situation. The district’s board chair, Shemi Shlomo, could not be reached by the time of publication.