The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“We need to manage that parking area”
Gunnison County is taking over the enforcement of parking regulations at the Kebler winter trailhead, since a big increase in the number of parked vehicles and trailers is causing problems for the plow drivers trying to maintain the area.
County Public Works director Marlene Crosby told the Board of County Commissioners at a meeting Tuesday February 4 that the parking situation has gotten out of hand and is causing the county headaches when it snows.
She said while there might have been a dozen or fewer cars in the lot overnight at any one time last year, this year she has reports of as many as 48 cars in the lot. That can make plowing the lot in the dark a nightmare.
“There were a number of years we put a tow sticker warning on—if [the vehicle] wasn’t gone in 24 hours we’d have it towed. Then we transferred that to the Mt. Crested Butte police and this year they’re busy enough that they’re not able to do it. It’s causing a lot of congestion,” Crosby said. “We have accidents when trailers get buried in snow because you don’t see them and so we sometimes give them a ride someplace they don’t want to go. We need to manage that parking area.”
Crosby said she would likely be returning to the commissioners next year with a proposal for a permit system that would allow winter residents and visitors to get permission to leave a vehicle at the lot overnight.
“I believe what’s going on is that the places in Irwin that used to have maybe one car [now] have a lot more of them occupied in the winter and they’re being occupied by three or four people who are not a family unit so they’re working three or four different schedules and parking cars,” she said. “I think we’re going to have to go to a permit system there much like we have on Slate, where there’s one or two [cars] per property.”
Until then, the BOCC granted Public Works the authority to issue tow warnings, and eventually tickets, on cars parked in the lot and then have them towed after 24 hours.
