Formally called the NM 68-US 64 Roadway Project, construction on Taos' main thoroughfare began in March 2020 and will extend along Paseo del Pueblo Sur and Paseo del Pueblo Norte from La Posta Road to Camino de la Placita. The final phases of construction — which include landscaping and striping — were most recently scheduled to wrap up last year. However, the project has progressed slower than anticipated, extending the economic pain felt by downtown businesses. The New Mexico Department of Transportation told the Taos News last year crews are now targeting a spring or summer 2025 finish.
Parking fees, many business owners felt, have added to an economic downturn in Taos, with some merchants claiming revenue losses of as much as 60 percent.
Taos scrapped hundreds of mostly-broken individual parking meters last year and deployed new smart meter kiosks in May and June that were met with protest by many local residents. Town officials said the fees produce revenue needed for parking lot and downtown streetscape maintenance, to which the proceeds are exclusively directed. After a pause that began in mid-October, Taos' new paid parking system was relaunched Dec. 2.
For full coverage of the Town of Taos Council meeting, at which a simmering frustration over the lack of on-the-ground solutions to Taos' affordable housing crisis boiled over, a new marketing and tourism director was introduced, and the council discussed the infrastructure needs of the town's Taos Valley Regional Wastewater Treatment and Reclamation Facility, see the Jan. 30 edition of the Taos News.
The Town of Taos will not charge parking fees downtown until the yearslong road construction along Paseo del Pueblo is complete, Mayor Pascual Maestas announced at Tuesday evening's (Jan. 28) regular town council meeting.
"I had a very good meeting with Miss Polly Raye today for lunch and with discussions with [Town Manager Lupe Martinez], who had further discussions with the council, we have agreed to suspend parking rates until construction is finished in the downtown," Maestas said at the meeting.