The Gorsuch debate? Obamacare repeal? Fracking, perhaps? Nope. It’s all mere coffee talk in Denver. If you really want to watch tempers flare over a contemporary political issue in Colorado’s capital, raise the subject of parking.

It’s a staple of local news coverage and a thorn in the side of business owners and homeowners alike in a number of neighborhoods in the inner-urban core. A recent move by Denver’s showpiece shopping venue, the Cherry Creek Mall, to start charging for the use of its parking garage has raised an uproar. By some guesstimates, mall traffic has taken a hit as a result, and a number of shop owners at the mall are grousing out loud.

Mall management says its hands are tied. It says the decision was an inevitable and necessary response to rapid growth and increasingly dense development in the adjacent Cherry Creek business and shopping district. For all the hotel expansions as well as new office and condo buildings popping up, there just wasn’t enough parking. And workers at nearby jobs who weren’t even setting foot inside the mall itself were parking in its garage for free. So, the mall cracked down.

It’s all a microcosm of sorts of the broader issue: a booming, hip destination city that is experiencing lots of growth and urban redevelopment – in itself, welcomed by civic leaders – even as mass-transit expansion lags and parking space dries up.

Which is why it’s front and center on the Denver City Council’s agenda and is one of the more divisive and even acrimonious issues to come along. It bedevils and divides the city’s policy makers as well as wide-ranging community groups and business stakeholders. Denverite politics and policy maven Erica Meltzer dissects the dilemma this week in the wake of a controversial vote the the City Council:

…The issue is the small lot parking exemption, a component of Denver’s zoning code that allowed developers in certain mixed-use zones to skip the parking when they develop lots that are 6,250 square feet or smaller.

There’s a moratorium in place on using that exemption, and there were two proposals on the table. One, supported by (City Council member Albus) Brooks, would have exempted parking for the first three stories if a project was close to transit and for the first two stories if it were farther from transit. The other, pushed by Councilman Jolon Clark, would require parking after the first two stories for projects close to transit and after the first story further out. Both proposals maintain the full exemption for existing buildings, even if they are being redeveloped for a new use.

The Denver City Council voted 7-6 Monday to advance Clark’s proposal…

And a May 1 public hearing is next. Battle lines are drawn; get ready to duck.

Parking is a challenge in other climes along the Front Range, too. Not just elsewhere in metro Denver but also in parts of Colorado Springs, Boulder, Fort Collins…any other nominees?

A reminder that even if not all politics really is local, a whole lot of local politics is about parking in plenty of cities.

Here’s the link again to Meltzer’s full report. There’s a lot of good stuff in it, including some by-they-numbers charts that should come in especially handy for those with a dog in the fight.