BY BOB BERWYN
Summit Daily News
October 11, 2006

BRECKENRIDGE — Vail Resorts Wednesday announced a passel of new parking options for visitors at Breckenridge and Keystone, including a $99 locals season parking pass.

The changes are aimed to ease the pain of the transition to paid parking at the Miners and Tailings lots, closest to the new BreckConnect Gondola.

As expected, the resort will begin charging $10 per day for parking at those two lots as soon as the Gondola opens, foreseeably early this season. While the new gondola terminal and other base-area buildings will eat up about 150 spots, the resort will replace them with free spots in the Gold Rush parking lot, according to resort spokesperson Nicky DeFord.

DeFord said the array of season parking passes marks the biggest change from last season. The parking plan features daily, weekday and transferable passes, as well as several free lots withing walking distance of the gondola.

Breckenridge town officials said they will watch closely to see if the change from free to pay parking at the lots near the gondola has any effect on nearby retail and residential areas, said town manager Tim Gagen.

“For us it’s wait and see,” Gagen said, explaining that there have been some concerns that paid parking at the resort might lead visitors to park on town streets.
Gagen said. “If we see skiers parking where employees used to park, or if they’re not respecting the parking time-limits, we’ll be ready to respond on short notice,” Gagen said. One option is to implement a permit parking system in town, he explained.

In the meantime, the town will do some additional surveys to get more detailed information on the perceived problems and needs. Gagen said the surveys will be sent to people who expressed a willingness to answer more in-depth questions when they responded to a recent town questionnaire.

“We want to drill down a bit on the parking issue,” Gagen said. The idea is to pinpoint the issues. “Is it that there’s simply not enough parking, that they can’t park on Main Street,” Gagen said. “We want to find out why people ranked it (parking) as less than positive,” he concluded.

Roger McCarthy, co-president of Vail Resorts’ Mountain Division and chief operating officer for Breckenridge and Keystone, acknowledged the town’s concerns about the potential side-effects, but said that the resort and town agree that the gondola is a win-win that will help address wider traffic issues in Breckenridge, including the occasional gridlock at Ski Hill Road.

“I think it’s going to make a huge difference,” McCarthy said, adding that the paid-parking element helped put the gondola “over the top, economically.”

McCarthy said he doesn’t think the new parking plan will have a huge impact on employees.

“Our parking guys have been looking at this all summer. We’ll still have red-flag days and green-flag days,” he said, referring to a system of notifying resort workers as to the daily availability of close-in spots.

“Some days there will be room at Peak 8, most days there will not,” he said. “Some days there will be room at the gondola lots, other days there won’t,” he said, adding that many employees begin their work day before the gondola begins daily operations.

The resort will continue to provide shuttle service for employees from various free lots around town, including near the ice rink, he said.

“My sense is there will be some changes, but we needed to take over management of our lots,” he said. “We need to make sure we maximize parking for our guests who are coming here for skiing. That’s the primary basis for what we’re doing,” McCarthy concluded.

The parking passes go on sale Nov. 1, with only a limited number available.

Peak 8 and 9 daily parking

Daily parking at Peak 9 will cost $15, unchanged from last year. A non-transferable Monday to Thursday pass costs $300, while a family-transferable pass (Monday-Thursday) is $350.

Parking at the Peak 8 base is also $15 per day, with the similar deals on season parking passes. But the Peak 8 passes are valid five days a week, Monday through Friday.

Local’s passes

The non-transferable $99 local’s passes for the Miners and Tailings lots are valid seven days per week for up to 40 visits. Locals can buy another pass once they’ve used the initial 40 visits, if quantities permit. The parking passes are only available for season pass holders, and there may be other, as-yet unannounced restrictions, according to a Vail Resorts press release.

Free parking

Free parking continues at the Gold Rush lot, across Park Avenue from the gondola, at the Postal lot, located next to the Miners lot, as well as at the Airport Road lot with a bus connection to the gondola. The 1,200 free spots in those lots are first-come, first-serve.

At Keystone, free parking is available as always at the Montezuma lot. Paid parking at the close-in lots near River Run and Mountain Haus is $15 per day; $5 after 1 p.m.

For more information on parking passes at Breckenridge, call (970) 453-5000. Keystone parking info can be had at (970) 496-4FUN.