Construction activity took up nearly 23 more parking spaces on average per day in Aspen’s downtown core in July compared to the same time in 2025.
On average, 25.1 parking spaces were reserved per day in July 2026. Last July, 2.4 spaces were reserved on average per day, according to data provided by the city’s parking department. There are 682 parking spaces available in the downtown core, which the city defines as the four-by-four-block area between Monarch and Spring streets and Main Street and Durant Avenue. The core also includes the blocks of Main Street and Hopkins Avenue between Aspen and Monarch streets, and the one-block area within Spring to Original streets and Cooper to Durant avenues.
A majority of the reserved parking spaces this year were due to city-led infrastructure projects — about 18.1 spaces per day over the 31-day period. They were reserved to help facilitate the installation of critical public utilities infrastructure, Aspen Parking Director Blake Fitch said in an email.
“The majority of those projects were not in the core in July of last year,” he added.
In a follow-up email, Fitch said there were no spaces reserved for city infrastructure improvements or repairs in July 2025. The average 2.4 parking spaces reserved per day in July 2025 were made up solely of private contractor projects.
Of the 25.1 parking spaces reserved per day in July of this year, 6.3 were reserved for private contractor projects.
Some of the city infrastructure projects in the core included the replacement of the city’s electrical distribution cable infrastructure. The city is in its fifth year of a 15-year electric circuit replacement work, and the final year of the electrical work in the downtown core, the Aspen Daily News previously reported.
Cables from Koch Park to City Market were replaced this summer, causing largely alleyway closures along portions of Garmisch Street, Durant Avenue and Dean Street.
“These projects require trenching and conduit installation,” Project Manager Andy Rossello said in an email. “When private alleyway parking spots are impacted, the city offers impacted residents and business owners on-street parking for the duration of the construction.”
Other major redevelopment projects have taken up spaces downtown, including the RH Guesthouse redevelopment on the corner of Monarch Street and Hyman Avenue and the RH Gallery at Galena Street and Cooper Avenue.
Mayor Rachel Richards said the city council is trying to find ways to speed up construction timelines through both incentives and disincentives, “but in Colorado, summer is construction season and you’re starting as early in the spring and going as late in the fall as you can because of the weather.”
The city’s right-of-way season begins April 1 and ends Oct. 31. It is the time when any projects that involve excavation or any type of alteration in the public right of way are allowed to move forward.
Richards also said city infrastructure projects are necessary to keep the town running, and it sometimes means temporarily losing parking spots.
“I sometimes have to remind myself and other people that this is a real town, and when people have to fix the underground electric transformers, it’s a disturbance and parking is lost,” she said. “When they have to fix the sewer lines and they have to get in the roads in the summer, parking is lost.”
There also was a significant increase in the number of parking citations issued in July. This year, the parking department issued 1,650 citations across the entire city (not just the downtown core), compared to 1,169 citations issued at the same time last year, a 41% rise.
At the start of 2026, the Aspen City Council approved increases to parking rates across town. It was the first time that the rates had been raised since 2018. That’s one way the city is trying to maximize parking turnover and address greenhouse gas emissions, Fitch told the Aspen Daily News in February.
Richards said the increase in parking rates is also about encouraging commuters to use transit options, especially with the increased congestion in the valley.
“There’s no question that different aspects of our community’s life cycle end up creating challenges with parking,” she said. “It’s just reality, and we are continuing to try to offer more and better transit options for people to not have to use their car and not have to pay the high prices of parking and have a convenient day.”