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County discusses visitor management: short-term rental enforcement, shooting ranges, trailhead parking and grants
Summary
Commissioners and staff discussed steps to manage visitor impacts, including new authority to regulate short-term rental platforms, cooperation with Airbnb, a federal grant-funded shooting-range opening schedule, and exploring paid parking and trailhead maintenance to capture more visitor spending.
Clear Creek County elected officials and staff described several ongoing and planned efforts to better manage visitor impacts and capture more visitor spending in local towns.
Commissioner Jody Hartman Ball said the county has engaged with short-term rental platforms and that an updated county ordinance and a recent state law now allow counties to directly regulate platforms such as Airbnb and VRBO. She said Airbnb has begun cooperating and that the county hopes to bring other platforms on board to reduce unlicensed short-term rentals.
Hartman Ball and other commissioners outlined recreation-management efforts: the Devil's Canyon shooting range scheduled a soft opening on July 23, and a Dumont range remains delayed, with a potential October opening if the rec center runs it. County staff said a map of identified illegal-shooting areas and a complaint portal will be available on the county website so residents can flag problem locations.
Staff also discussed options to charge parking or trailhead access for nonresidents and to improve trailhead maintenance and restroom services. Roloff said a combined strategy of parking, toll enforcement and photo enforcement could generate an estimated $885,000 in new revenue if fully implemented; staff said those fees are limited to sites the county owns and cannot be imposed on U.S. Forest Service land.
Why it matters: Commissioners said day-trip visitors contribute to service demand (rescues, EMS calls, trash, parking congestion) but often do not spend enough in county towns. Capturing more visitor spending in towns (restaurants, retail) is a stated goal to reduce leakage to lower-elevation commercial centers.
Quotes and attributions: "If we have Airbnb on board, we're hoping to get VRBO and get everybody," Commissioner Jody Hartman Ball said. Colton Roloff said staff would pursue low-friction parking-management systems and grant funding for trailhead restrooms and maintenance.
Ending: Staff said they will post a map and complaint portal for illegal shooting areas on the county website, pursue grants for trailhead infrastructure, and evaluate pilot parking/fee systems on county-owned lots; county officials said legal and jurisdictional limits (federal land, state tax rules) constrain some options.
