Pitkin County considering land use code update to prevent highway-side camping 

The Board of County Commissioners is deliberating a measure that would ban camping on state roadways in unincorporated Pitkin County. According to Pitkin County Attorney Richard Neiley, there is currently no code that specifically prohibits this behavior, meaning that individuals were able to camp on the sides of roads without significant penalties. 

The land use code that could be used against such behavior carries a penalty of a $15 fine for “parking” but carries no punishment for “camping” and does not ratchet upwards from there, meaning that overnight campers currently face only minor repercussions. 

Commissioners debated a potential amendment to that code that would specifically bar “camping” and carry a ladder of penalties — a $250 fine for first offense, $500 for the second, and a $1,000 for the third before law enforcement is allowed to tow the vehicle. 

There would also be the expectation that sheriff’s office deputies would seek to educate campers first, offering warnings before citing road campers. 

The new code targets “all public rights of way” or roads and specifically opens Colorado State Highways 133 and 82 up to the sheriff’s office for enforcement. Prior to this code, those highways did not fall within the county’s land use code. 

During the meeting, there was a specific reference to a school bus that had been parked a few minutes drive outside of Aspen up Independence Pass on Highway 82. The vehicle has been parked there for much of the summer. According to Neiley, it isn’t precisely the reason that this code is being considered for amendment, but similar problems over the years have resulted in the current consideration. 

“We had an issue over the summer a few times but particularly around the Fourth of July where some folks came in and they actually put up some cones and rope, tried to rope off part of the right of way down by Woody Creek, so they could park there for the week of the Fourth of July, to hang out,” Neiley said. “Those are the kind of issues we’ve been having.”

Not all commissioners were on board with the concept, though. On first reading of the “repealing and reenacting” resolution, which needs two readings to be enacted, the commissioners voted three to one to approve. Commissioner Francie Jacober registered her discomfort with the idea on Wednesday. 

Jacober expressed that the problem was not yet bad enough to warrant policing car camping, particularly in a place with such high-costs for housing. She was also concerned that future sheriffs may have a different “approach to transgressions,” opening potential campers up to issues with discriminatory treatment. 

“The sheriff’s department’s discretion also concerns me in terms of possible favoritism,” she said. “That, to me, seems like an opening for discriminatory decisions that favor certain people and not other people.” 

Commissioner Kelly McNicholas Kury, despite voting to approve, did register that she shares some of Jacober’s discomforts with the measure. 

“Francie, I continue to do some soul searching on this one,” Kury said to her on Wednesday. “I’m happy to move it on first reading, but I do want to say that this sort of comes with my own expectation of when we revisit the Brush Creek Park & Ride, that we want to have a component of safe, overnight parking there. When someone is asked to move, the sheriff can say, ‘You stay here, but you can go (to the Brush Creek Park & Ride), and it’s on a bus line.’ I don’t think shuffling people around is a solution.” 

Kury and Jacober were quick to clarify that this potential land use code amendment would not affect parking at the Brush Creek Park & Ride, only on “rights of way,” or active roads. 

Commissioner Patti Clapper also acknowledged Jacober’s concerns before ultimately voting for the measure, in reference to the school bus that has been camped on Independence Pass.

“I appreciate Francis’ position, but I’m going to send the yellow school bus down (her) neighborhood next,” Clapper said. 

Second reading for the Land Use Code amendment is not until Jan. 15, 2026. However, Neiley noted that there is no rush to enact new code, so it is possible that the BOCC deliberates further on the rights of way issue.