Foot traffic or car traffic on west Pearl Street? That might be a ballot question in November.

Pearl For You is gathering signatures for a potential ballot measure that, if passed, would close Pearl from 9th to 11th streets and a portion of 10th Street to private vehicle traffic. It would essentially return that area to its pedestrian-dominated state from early in the COVID-19 pandemic.

The stretch of Pearl was closed and opened to pedestrians only early in the pandemic as a means to help restaurants draw crowds that could still be socially distant. That stretch was reverted to its pre-pandemic form with support from city staff and council in 2022.

“West Pearl, it was very freeform and people could use it the way they wanted to use it,” said Kurt Nordback, campaign committee chair for Pearl for You. “People could just sit and hang out or they could buy ice cream or buy food from Zoe Ma Ma or one of the other restaurants there or let their kids play in the middle of the street … I saw someone roller skating in the middle of it. “There was just so much opportunity that you don’t really have on the bricks portion of the mall where it’s more programmed, it’s a more constrained space.”

Pearl For You needs to collect 3,401 signatures by May 28 to make the ballot, Nordback said. Nordback said the organization has collected more than 1,000 electronic signatures, though he didn’t have a number on physical signatures.

While closing the area to car traffic is not even a ballot question yet, businesses in and around the affected area, current and former elected officials, and other community members are hitting the gas to try to stop it.

“The years immediately following the (early days of the) pandemic, we saw a dramatic decrease in sales. On the weekends everybody thought it was such a nice thing to have the street closed and everybody would come out, but then downtown just turned into a weekend destination with the lack of access to parking, especially for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday lunches,” said Jay W. Elowsky, who is part owner of Pasta Jay’s with his father. “If it was a cold night, people were not going to park four blocks away and walk to the restaurant.”

Keep West Pearl Open is the primary opposition campaign. Its website lists support from roughly 340 “community members,” about 160 “business leaders,” and 15 current and former elected officials. The lattermost group includes current City Council members Mark Wallach, Matt Benjamin, Nicole Speer, Taishya Adams, Tina Marquis and Tara Winer. Among Keep West Pearl Open’s supporters is Richard Foy, who helped design the Pearl Street Mall in the 1970s, and Edwin Zoe of Zoe Ma Ma.

“We want to send the message very clearly that we encourage our residents and voters not to sign the petition. Policy decisions are not made through the ballot box when it comes to this kind of intricate city planning decisions,” said John Tayer, president of the Boulder Chamber of Commerce and a supporter of Keep West Pearl Open.

Elowsky also was also concerned over parking availability should the area be closed to vehicles, especially in the case of consumers with disabilities and in the case of cold weather.

“This is our livelihoods — we want to be here. We’ve been in business for 37 years, and we don’t plan on going away anytime soon,” Elowsky said. “Last time, immediately following the (early days of the) pandemic, it was (scary) that almost our freedoms were taken from us. Beyond our control, obviously, the whole world shut down. Then immediately following that, it was not what we were used to — it was not good for our business. We want to be in control of our own destiny.”

Nordback said should the measure pass, it would impact about 57 parking spaces.

“That’s a drop in the bucket of the total amount of parking down there,” Nordback said, adding that there are parking garages nearby with plenty of spaces.

Nordback said Pearl For You is open to working with local businesses to compromise on the issue. He added that no businesses have publicly supported the measure, but some have privately said they have no objection to complete or partial pedestrianization of the area.

Elowsky expressed concern with closing the street to deliveries and that limiting deliveries to only alleyways could hurt business. Nordback, though, said there isn’t much space in that area of Pearl for deliveries as it is and added that there would be a provision to allow for deliveries in the morning when there are fewer pedestrians.

“The governance of a city is a balance of a lot of different interests. Businesses are very important. We absolutely support local businesses — we are dedicated to their success,” Nordback said. “But at the same time, they’re not everything. If we run everything for the businesses, it makes for a very different kind of city and not necessarily a city that’s in the best interest of the people as a whole. And so we need to balance what do the businesses want and what does the broader community want.”