Hank Scarangella recently unearthed a 1994 Gazette article examining the Colorado Springs City Council's master plan for Garden of the Gods Park.
The councilors then rejected the proposal. According to the newspaper, the planners were asked, among other things, to think about "a permit system to limit summer traffic".
"I don't know how many visitors there were in 1994, but it certainly doesn't look like what we're seeing now," said Scarangella, a longtime park volunteer and past president of Friends of the Garden of the Gods.
The most famous place in the city is now visited by around 4.5 million people every year. It is on par with the Rocky Mountains, Grand Canyon and Zion National Parks, all of which are more than 2 square miles.
The master plan from about 30 years ago has not been updated. Scarangella is one of the proponents who argue that in times of unrelenting popularity, it's time for a modern management handbook.
"There's no priority, that confuses me," said Peggy Dolinich, a Friends Group vice president who worked for the National Park Service for 41 years. "How do you want to deal with people? How will you manage the resource?
Those are fitting questions for the new director of the Garden of the Gods.
The City Parks Department recently announced the hiring of Anna Cordova, who has served as the department's archaeologist for the past seven years. He sees that his earlier works translate well.
"Archaeology is about preservation and consultation and making sure everyone involved is involved," he said.
Proponents say the park needs more than ever: a difficult conversation about conservation and the park's all-too-familiar scenes in summer.
Traffic was heavy on 30th Street. There is heavy traffic in the park.
The parking spaces are full, including the large "full" parking lot at the park entrance. Queues of people waited for a transfer in Central Park.
The walkways of the central garden are full of pedestrians and dogs. As can be seen in the photos on Dolinich's cell phone, people are climbing the striking rock formations.
"The asset cannot take that much abuse," he said.
If you look at the huts at the park entrances, volunteers are seeing a 15 percent increase from last year, Scarrangela said. He finds it problematic.
"I think we have as many people as possible," he said. "I think we have everything that (the park) can stand."
It's observations like these that have prompted national parks like the Rockies and Arches to implement timed entry reservations that limit summer crowds. The City of Colorado Springs operates the Manitou Incline Reservation System.
"It's not a new idea for a park to consider something like scheduled access at some point," Cordova said. "But of course it needs resources and people to help manage these things."
The same applies to the shuttle system currently in operation, which takes visitors past the main entrance into the park. Experts hired by the city proposed this more comprehensive system in a 2018 study.
More parking would take more cars off the road through the garden, Scarangella said, pointing to a problem: "You still have to keep these people together."
It begs the same question, Cordova says: Where is the money going to come from to launch the expanded service? (The cost of a short walk is currently split between the city and the Garden of the Gods Foundation, which receives proceeds from sales of the visitor center.)
While noble, "the requirement that (the park) must always be free and open to the public is a problem for us," Cordova said, referring to the park's historical act. "A lot of properties don't necessarily have this particular problem, but for the garden it's a big problem."
This is another part of the difficult discussion that will take place in updating the master plan. The 1994 conversation was controversial and remains so today, Scarrangela said.
As a driving force of the economy, the garden has always been "a tension between attracting visitors and protecting the resource," said Scarangella.
An archaeologist seemed like a good solution, he said. "It'll bring that waking perspective."
