The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Taking another look after more data from Big Brother
By Mark Reaman
Residents of Gunnison County will be allowed to park around the Mountain Express bus stops on Crested Butte’s Sixth Street this coming winter. Vehicles will have to be registered with the town through its parking management page (www.parkcrestedbutte.com) and vehicles not registered in Gunnison County will have to abide by neighborhood parking restrictions on parts of Butte, Teocalli, Maroon and Elk Avenues and move their vehicles after two hours or get a ticket. The public parking lots near the Four-Way Visitor’s Center will continue to be free of charge and have no constraints. Council came to that conclusion on a split 4-3 vote.
Last spring, the council had considered limiting the area within 500 feet of the Four-Way and Gas Café (Teocalli Ave.) bus stops to two-hour parking with the stated purpose to minimize parking impacts of the ski resort on those residential streets. But they asked staff to do more public outreach on the issue, and community development director Troy Russ reported back at the September 16 council meeting that feedback obtained during the summer block parties was that “the majority of comments received were related to disappointment with the town’s abruptness of implementing the neighborhood parking permit program around the Four-Way and Teocalli bus stops without meaningful alternative solutions for out-of-town (in-county) skiers.” Suggested alternatives included having a park-and-ride at Brush Creek or having the Mountain Express serve the school parking lot on busy days when school was not in session. The recommended alternative from Russ was to allow permits for county residents to use on-street parking spaces around the Four-Way and Teocalli bus stops.
Russ made clear that parking in Crested Butte was a “distribution and convenience” issue and there is plenty of parking but not always exactly where people want to park. He said public transit has improved significantly in the valley in the last few years and now that roundabouts are planned and mostly guaranteed to be financed for Red Lady Avenue by the Crested Butte Community School and at Brush Creek, alternative park-and-ride solutions will be made easier.
“Until the park-and-rides like the school and Brush Creek are established, this policy sets the stage to begin weaning county non-neighborhood residents from parking on the town’s crowded residential streets near those bus stops,” he said.
Russ said that while the town would pay the parking enforcement company more money to police that part of town, an added benefit would be that their employees could collect more data about the parking habits in that area. He said the town also collects data from cell phone information on who parks where and when (just a tad Big Brotheresque?). That will be valuable information in future parking discussions. “It would give us full metrics to consider as the program evolves,” he said.
Russ said Vail Resorts “has been exploring how to work with the town concerns and better use their lots on the mountain for ski traffic.”
Citizen Caren Carroll asked if data could be collected to see if some of the non-county vehicles simply drive another block to park in more residential neighborhoods without the two-hour limit.
Russ said that could be seen as part of cell phone data collection.
Mayor Ian Billick followed up on that idea asking if by restricting parking close to the bus stops, people would be pushed into residential neighborhoods on busy powder days.
“But people won’t walk that far with skis,” Russ said. “There are plenty of studies showing people won’t walk more than 500 feet to catch a bus. They will probably drive over to Whiterock Avenue where the bus stops several times and park there for overflow.
“The fact we will get good data and the park-and-rides will be in operation in a few years makes me comfortable with the staff recommendation,” said councilmember Jason MacMillan.
Councilmember Beth Goldstone disagreed. “I am still not super convinced,” she said. “We are trying to change habits and we need to preserve the Four-Way. The distance from my house to the bus stop is a seven-minute walk. The distance from the far parking lot in Mt. Crested Butte to the Base Area is a seven-minute walk. The distance from the school parking lot to the Clark’s bus stop is a seven-minute walk. A lot of us can walk seven minutes,” she said. “I don’t see the need to do all this changing before the school parking lot has a roundabout. I’m comfortable with the alternative requiring a neighborhood permit and limiting parking to two-hours for everyone else.”
Councilmember Kent Cowherd saw the staff recommendation as the most permissible and easiest choice for the coming winter.
“I do too,” said councilmember Gabi Prochaska. “Until the intercept lots are in place, I am fine with allowing county residents to park on the streets in that area,” she said. “I would like to relook at it in a year.”
Councilmember Anna Fenerty said public awareness had been raised over the issue and she was willing to do nothing extra this winter in that area of town and re-evaluate it after the ski season.
“I’m with Beth,” said councilmember Mallika Magner. “My house has been on the recent detour with the closing of the Four-Way, and it is shocking to see how many cars are driving through town. The community made their voice clear in the Compass and they want town to be walkable and bikeable, so I agree with having more restrictions.”
“I like the county resident program,” said Billick. “It is important to figure out and agree we should have the conversation next year with more information to evaluate the situation.”
Council voted 4-3 for allowing county residents to park on the street near the bus stops this winter. Billick, Prochaska, Cowherd and MacMillan voted in favor with Goldstone, Magner and Fenerty voting against it.
Council will re-evaluate the winter parking regs for that area before the 2025-26 ski season after considering data obtained in the coming winter.
