A ticket for parking illegally in the town of Brighton will soon cost more than a lift ticket to the town’s ski resort.
Starting perhaps as soon as this weekend, anyone who blocks a driveway or leaves a car in a no-parking zone will be ticketed and required to pay a $150 fine. An all-day weekend lift ticket to the Big Cottonwood Canyon resort currently costs $126 on Brighton’s website.
In addition, anyone parking on a private road can be towed by the property owner at the vehicle owner’s expense.
The tickets will be issued by Unified Police patrollers in response to what has become constant problem for town residents.
“People are literally parking in the road,” said Melody Cutler, a UPD spokesperson. “It’s bad.”
The Brighton Town Council passed the ordinance in October allowing officers to give out citations. Officers began handing out warnings on Dec. 7.
“We are not doing this for the revenue,” Mayor Dan Knopp said in a news release. “We are trying to encourage people to do the right thing. We make travel hard and potentially put lives in danger when vehicles are parked in the roadway.”
Brighton Resort currently offers free parking in 95% of its lot. It does allow people to make paid parking reservations starting at $30 per day. On the other hand, its Big Cottonwood Canyon neighbor, Solitude Mountain Resort, was the first in Utah to charge for parking in all of its lots.
“The town is hopeful that the public will realize the dangerous parking issues and will cooperate by either parking safely or using public transportation,” Carolyn Keigley, a Town of Brighton council member, said in a news release. “We don’t want to issue large fines or tow cars, but safety is our top priority.”
The Utah Transit Authority’s Ski Bus began service to the Cottonwood Canyon resorts on Sunday. Its buses will run every half hour daily from 6:15 a.m. to 8:22 p.m.
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