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Aspen council adopts 2025 fee ordinance but holds off on proposed encroachment hike
Summary
The City of Aspen on Nov. 19 approved its 2025 fee ordinance with amendments that preserved current right‑of‑way encroachment rates and left questions about reserved‑space parking for later study after sharply contested public comment and council debate.
The Aspen City Council on Nov. 19 adopted the city’s 2025 fee ordinance after a heated public hearing and council debate, voting to keep longstanding encroachment rates in place while leaving other parking issues for further review. The ordinance passed with amendments that removed a proposed jump in encroachment fees and preserved the existing $9 per square foot (core) and $7 (outside core) rates for encroachments.
Attorney Chris Bridal, speaking during public comment, criticized the proposed increase from $7/$9 to $20 per square foot as arbitrary and legally risky. “It sounds like it’s a money grab,” Bridal said, arguing staff provided no cost analysis or rationale for the size of the increase and cautioning that owners and developers might litigate if the hike were applied mid‑project.
Council members and staff spent much of the meeting parsing differences between parking reservation fees (daily reserved spaces) and encroachment fees (space between curb and building). Engineering staff explained the proposal equated certain square‑footage encroachment rates with reserved parking values; parking department staff clarified that construction reserved spaces have been charged at a separate daily rate historically. Council ultimately amended the ordinance to leave the engineering encroachment table at the existing $9/$7 rates and to adopt the remainder of the fee schedule.
Mayor Tory said the council wanted to avoid imposing new, unexpected costs on projects already under way while still addressing the long‑running problem of long‑term encroachments that limit public use of sidewalks and streets. The council signaled it will request additional analysis and a possible future work session on parking parity and reserved‑space fees.
What’s next: the ordinance goes into effect as amended; staff will supply the requested calculations and options for a follow‑up discussion in the new year.
