Breckenridge Skiers Upset Over Season Parking Changes
BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. (CBS4) - The Breckenridge Ski Area opens for its 50th anniversary season Friday and skiers will notice big changes even before they reach the slope.
With snowmaking still happening on the hill, the debate over parking for this ski season in Breckenridge is starting to heat up. The mere $10 increase for a season pass for parking doesn't have local residents upset; it's the enforcement of the parking pass policy.
"My wife can't go even though we're in the same household. It just seemed ridiculous," Breckenridge resident Tom Briggs said.
While parking passes for the prime gondola lot has gone up $10 this year to $169, many in Breckenridge are outraged at the new enforcement. Locals like Briggs used to buy one pass for his family. Now the resort is offering passes for each individual, or a $500 pass that anyone can use.
"I just found it very annoying, as many of my neighbors have too, that they'd converted it to in essence almost a ski pass" Briggs said.
"The parking passes we have -- have always been a non-transferrable product, much like our ski passes, in that same spirit," Kristen Stewart with Breckenridge Ski Resort said. "Since we added the gondola years ago, it is a different product and a different way to access the mountain."
Briggs says he was told by management that the parking passes were being misused.
"The abuse had been that a number of condo owners had bought these passes and maybe bought multiple passes and just handed them out to their renters," Briggs said.
Some in Breckenridge feel it's just a way for the resort to make even more money.
"It just seems to me and a lot of other neighbors, who are going to refuse to buy the pass, just another way of jacking the prices," Briggs said.
The resort hasn't raised the daily price, only on the passes. It also offers free parking. There are also a few lots owned by the town that are more expensive.
