The Snowmass Village Town Council’s recent decision to charge for day-skier parking at the Rodeo parking lot is — not surprisingly — an unpopular idea with most locals. The plan, which goes into effect this winter, also goes against the recommendation of the town’s transportation director, and the opinion of the Aspen Skiing Co.

Several local skiers and snowboarders interviewed for this story said that charging $5 for parking in Snowmass’ last free lot is a slap in the face to the budget-conscious locals who primarily use it, and that it makes Snowmass more like other large corporate resorts.

“I think it’s too bad; the free parking there was one of the things that set us apart from places like Vail,” said Zander Tekus, a Woody Creek snowboarder who usually drives to Snowmass twice a week because he doesn’t have a viable bus option. “It seems unfortunate, but I figured it was inevitable because they’re commercializing the whole base. Free parking was just one more thing that made it feel like a locals’ mountain — you feel a lot more welcome when you don’t have to pay for everything. Next thing you know, they’re going to put toll booths at Brush Creek and charge $3 just to drive up.”

Tekus and his girlfriend, Ali Buck, both said the parking charge would likely change their habits. Since they have to get in a car anyway from Woody Creek, they will try to carpool (since vehicles with four or more occupants park for free) or take a free bus from the Brush Creek park-and-ride lot, although both options will cost precious time and effort.

As for the $5 parking fee, though it’s not a lot, Buck said, “it would add up over the winter and you already have to pay so much for a pass.”

Barb Cyr, a ski instructor who lives in Carbondale, said that charging for parking at the rodeo lot is “a terrible idea,” even if the $5 fee is not that much money.

“I hate that you have to pay for everything anymore,” said Cyr, who owns a condo in Snowmass and parks there herself, but used to park at the rodeo lot and knows many people who do. “Let’s just charge the locals to death.”

Those who are not entirely opposed to paid parking said it would probably alleviate traffic and help the town generate revenue, and it isn’t that much farther to park free at the Brush Creek lot and take a shuttle bus up, anyway.

Paying $5 to park a full day is something Ksenija Ilic, an Aspen resident, is perfectly willing to do, and hopefully it will encourage more people to ride mass transit. “You can choose whether to drive or not,” she said.

One local resident who said she had mixed feelings about it said that she would be OK with paid parking as long as the town knows its real motivation and puts the revenue to good use.

“I kind of surrendered to the parking issue about six years ago,” said Marguerite Dykann of Emma, after Aspen Highlands instituted paid parking and after Base Village construction reduced parking options in Snowmass. “It’s  a hassle, but it’s just something that you factor in now.”

The rodeo lot will have about 400 parking spaces this winter, according to a memo from Snowmass Village transportation director David Peckler. Although the lot had an average of 283 cars per day from January through March last winter, there were 25 days — or 17 percent of the time — when the lot’s capacity of 350 cars was exceeded, with 446 vehicles as a peak total.

The demand for parking in the rodeo lot has generally increased over the last several years, with the March average up by 85 cars last winter compared with the winter of 2002/2003.

“The consensus remains that it is premature at this time to begin charging for parking in the rodeo lot,” Peckler wrote in a memo to Town Council before they voted 3-2 to go ahead with paid parking. “The ability to create an effective park-&-ride program for the Intercept Lot at Highway 82 is problematic, given the current resources of the Village Shuttle (the town’s free transit system) and the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority.”

The town has been mulling the idea of paid parking in the rodeo lot for a few years; the dirt lot was recently paved, along with a host of improvements at the town’s entryway.

Free shuttle buses run from the rodeo lot to the mountain in the winter approximately every 15 minutes. Bus service to the mountain from the Brush Creek lot is every half-hour, with no plans at this time by the town or by RFTA to increase the frequency. Free skier shuttles from Aspen to Snowmass don’t stop at the Brush Creek lot to pick up passengers.

Day-skier parking options also include Lot C, which has 150 spaces, and Two Creeks, with 400 spaces. It is unknown what the charge will be for those two lots, but Two Creeks was $13 last winter.

No day-skier parking spaces will be available in the Base Village parking garage this winter.

Peckler also wrote in his memo that his department, the police and SkiCo all agreed it is important to provide free park-and-ride service to the ski area, partly because “peak hour demand on existing services is taxing both the Village Shuttle and RFTA already.

“We need more time to resolve the transportation issues of a park-&-ride program from the Intercept lot,” Peckler concluded.

lutz@aspendailynews.com