Canyonlands Field Airport will soon begin to collect parking fees, possibly as early as March 1.
Airport patrons who choose to park overnight at the airport will be charged $3 per night, the airport board said at its Feb. 4 meeting.
“It should be a good revenue source for us,” said Judd Hill, the Canyonlands Field Airport director.
Hill predicts the parking fees could generate up to $400 this year for the airport.
The new policy is to charge anyone parking overnight anywhere on the airport’s property $3.
Hill said the airport is in the process of setting up envelopes and steel lock boxes in secured areas where people can drop their payments.
Cash or money orders will be accepted as payment, and patrons will need to place a tag in their windshield to show payment has been made. The board discussed whether paying with cash or check only will pose a problem for travelers who don’t carry bills, but said that there is an ATM inside the airport terminal for those people who forget to bring cash.
Airport board member Karen Guzman-Newton, a member of Moab City Council, asked the board, “If somebody’s running late and they don’t have time to do it, what’s their penalty looking like?”
“Those who are not compliant are ticketed and towed,” Hill said.
The Grand County Sheriff’s Office dispatch will be notified of any parking violations and will arrange the tow service through one of several companies in the area, Hill said.
“I would like to run it for some bit of time with a bit of grace, but good airports, you expect to pay for parking,” Hill said.
He said that people should be aware that “We are recording your car license plate, make and model,” to report violations.
The new payment policy is being operated as an “honor system to start with,” Hill said, but added that the airport will do its best to “keep things fair.”
“The goal is that the more money we can generate from people who use the airport, the less we use from taxpayers,” he said.
The airport completed an expansion last year and reopened on May 1 with daily flights between Moab and Denver.
At a previous airport board meeting Hill said, “The airport has been growing a lot, very quickly. …
I hadn’t quite anticipated this level of growth.”
“The goal is that the more money we can generate from people who use the airport, the less we use from taxpayers.”
