Eldora Reverses Course On Parking Fees: "We've heard you."

NEDERLAND, CO -- Less than a week after it announced a mid-season parking fee change for visitors, Eldora Mountain Resort has announced it will not go through with the plan which would have charged many visitors a $20 fee to park on peak visitation days. Late Tuesday night, the resort issued a statement informing visitors that it would not go through with the fee, but imploring them to take their own actions to reduce congestion and emissions.

“We heard our guests’ impassioned feedback loudly and we’re changing course,” says Brent Tregaskis, Eldora’s president and general manager in a statement. “As a community partner, Eldora is committed to embracing input and adapting accordingly. We will not introduce paid parking at this time because we did not give our guests sufficient notice.”

Eldora noted that the initiative's design had been informed by guest input, and was created with the intention of improving user experience and incentivizing behavior that protects the environment.

Many guests had complained that the fee was announced after they had already bought expensive season passes without knowledge of the impeding fee, and few of the vocal opponents were placated by Eldora's offer of free bus passes for the RTD's N route. Under the plan, visitors arriving on peak visitation days — weekends, holidays, and to-be-determined weather days — would be required to pay a $20 fee to park in the Eldora lot.

“The fact remains that without paid parking on peak days we expect we will have to continue to turn guests away due to overcrowding again this season,” says Tregaskis. “We are working closely with the County to increase our parking capacity, reduce traffic, and lower emissions, but we aren’t there yet. Given that we are rescinding our paid-parking proposal at this time, we need our guests to speak as loudly with their actions as they have with their words.”

Eldora plans to continue to offer first-come, first-served priority parking for vehicles arriving with more than three passengers, and will continue to distribute the RTD bus tickets to those interested. Representatives note that the resort is keeping its options open for future solutions.

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