The town of Dillon officially approved prices for overnight parking in town lots, which is set to start this winter. 

For the past few months, Town Council members toyed with various pricing structures and options. The town signed an agreement to work with Interstate Parking, a company with experience working with other areas in Summit County including Frisco Bay Marina and public parking in Breckenridge.

The agreement between the Town of Dillon and Interstate Parking calls for the parking company to manage the Town’s overnight parking facilities containing approximately 550 spaces that are distributed among 12 lots. 

According to the resolution, Sunday through Wednesday night prices will be $10 per night from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. Thursday through Saturday nights will be higher at $20 per night. Local full-time residents and property owners can pay $25 per quarter or $100 per year for a resident permit. 

For businesses in the town core that use the parking for business vehicles, owners will pay $300 per year or $75 per quarter for a business permit.

On nights when paid shows are at the Dillon Amphitheater, parking will cost $30 per night or for premier parking. 

Currently, there is not a set date for paid overnight parking to begin, but the resolution to adopt the fees states that the town will give at least 30 days notice to the public before it begins charging fees for overnight and event parking to allow the community the opportunity to apply for and obtain resident and business permits. 

“If the weather cooperates — I believe probably by the middle of the month — (Interstate Parking) will start putting in kiosks,” Town manager Nathan Johnson said.

As for short-term rentals, licensees that have paid short-term rental parking fees will receive one residential parking permit for town lots for every $300 spent annually on short-term rental parking fees. 

“We thought that was appropriate because technically those short-term parking fees are paying for maintenance of those lots and eventual overlaying every 12 or so years, and this fee is for commercial construction,” town attorney Nick Cotton-Baez said. 

Town Council members have tried twice before to get paid parking in town lots overnight, Mayor Carolyn Skowyra said. The first time was shut down by council members at the time, and the second attempt was met with a lot of push back from community members. Johnson said that the town has not fielded any pushback this time. 

Since early in the summer, council members worked to figure out how to handle paid parking as a potential solution to parking deficiency in town. Currently, parking overnight is permitted only in the town’s rotating lots as posted on the regulatory signs at the entrance to those lots. There are at least two parking lots available for anyone to leave a vehicle overnight on any given night, but camping in vehicles is prohibited. 

In previous discussions, council members talked about the issues caused by congestion due to a lack of parking when larger events like concerts happen in Dillon. People drive downtown looking for empty spots where there are none while surrounded by pedestrians headed to the event, creating traffic jams. Money from paid parking could be used to go toward building a larger parking structure in town.

With the passage of an ordinance and two resolutions on Tuesday, Dillon modified town code to allow for a third party to enforce parking regulations in the town. The legislation passed unanimously.