Some In Breckenridge Welcome Paid Parking, Some Are 'Furious'

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. (CBS4) - The Town of Breckenridge will start charging for parking as it tries easing the traffic downtown.

New pay booths go live Thursday at 10 a.m. It's been something everyone saw coming but lots of residents and businesses are still not happy about it.

"The first 15 minutes is free, the first hour is 50 cents," Breckenridge Mayor Eric Mamula said.

Breckenridge has long been plagued by parking woes and is now hoping the pay plan will help alleviate some of the gridlock downtown.

Mamula says the response has been more mixed then he thought it would be.

"Pleasantly surprised on one hand, and on the other hand some people are furious," he said.

Inside a Main Street thrift store employees like Dawn Banas say the pay-to-park plan is a rude awakening.

"I knew we are going to have to go to some type of parking solution," Banas said.

Banas says it won't solve the bigger problems, such as a lack of parking spaces, but hopes it will help.

"We need a parking structure. We need something that's more than that's just the changing how we can park," she said.

Mamula agrees.

"This is holistic plan that has parking and transportation all combined with new bus routes and paid parking and new employee parking areas," Mamula said.

It's a resort town struggling to keep up with its own success.

"Times are changing, but Breck is growing, and we love that part," Banas said.