The alpine architecture of Vail Village is apparent on a snowy day. (The Denver Post/Gasthof Gramshammer)
Truckers have sued the Town of Vail over its attempts to keep them out of the pedestrian villages.
In August 2022, the town passed an ordinance prohibiting delivery trucks from entering Vail Village and Lionshead Village, to make those areas friendlier to skiers and pedestrians. Those areas are mostly off-limits to cars, with exceptions for people leaving parking garages.
“It’s bad in the winter time; it’s unbearable in the summertime,” Vail Police Chief Ryan Kenney told the Vail Daily then. “It’s not ideal. It’s very dangerous to have pedestrians and delivery vehicles interacting in such a small area … this is the ultimate solution.”
Rather than deliver directly to businesses and residences, truckers must now drop their cargo at loading docks. Couriers in small electric vehicles then take the goods to their destinations. The program takes 47 trucks off village streets during an average winter day, Vail says.
The ordinance initially made an exception for big commercial carriers, such as FedEx, UPS and the U.S. Postal Service. But last month, Vail began cracking down on them too.
On Sept. 28, a lawyer for the Colorado Motor Carriers Association, which represents the state’s trucking industry, wrote to the Town of Vail asking that it end its courier program and stop enforcing the ban on delivery trucks, which the CMCA considers to be unlawful. The industry group cites federal laws that limit the power of towns to regulate trucking.
A lawyer for Vail wrote back a week later to say that towns can regulate vehicles at pedestrian malls, such as Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall. Vail said it was “entirely inaccurate” for the CMCA to characterize the ordinance as banning deliveries, since they can still be made on foot.
Vail refused to delay enforcement of its ordinance on major carriers, so the CMCA sued it and Kenney on Friday in Denver federal court. The trucking group wants U.S. District Court Judge Charlotte Sweeney to declare the ordinance unconstitutional and unenforceable.
“The town is aware of the complaint,” Vail spokeswoman Kris Widlak said Monday, “and our attorneys are reviewing it now.”
CMCA’s lawsuit claims the ordinance “eliminates competition completely” and “stifles innovation” because “Vail, not the market, will now decide when and how deliveries will be made.”
Exhibits to the lawsuit include emails that shop owners have sent to the Vail Town Council.
“I’ve had deliveries delayed, left unattended for hours without notice, unloaded in Lionhead or just flat out not delivered because of these new rules,” wrote American Ski Exchange owner Tom Higgins, whose shop is in Vail Village, in an email Oct. 3.
“It’s bad business to tick off the delivery men,” Higgins said. “We depend on them.”
Troy Goldberg, who owns Troy’s Ski Shop elsewhere in Vail Village, told council members in late September that FedEx will no longer ship to his store.
“I picked up 50 pairs of ski boots in Gypsum this morning, then drove to the shop and dropped them off. This was not convenient and not a practical way to transport merchandise,” he said, adding that 50 pairs is a small shipment and larger amounts will be even harder.
“I hope you can come to an arrangement with the shipping companies, so we can get our merchandise,” Goldberg wrote in his email.
The CMCA is represented by a trio of lawyers from the Indianapolis firm Scopelitis Garvin Light Hanson & Ferry, plus Sterling LeBoeuf at Davis Graham & Stubbs in Denver.
The alpine architecture of Vail Village is apparent on a snowy day. (The Denver Post/Gasthof Gramshammer)
Truckers have sued the Town of Vail over its attempts to keep them out of the pedestrian villages.
In August 2022, the town passed an ordinance prohibiting delivery trucks from entering Vail Village and Lionshead Village, to make those areas friendlier to skiers and pedestrians. Those areas are mostly off-limits to cars, with exceptions for people leaving parking garages.
“It’s bad in the winter time; it’s unbearable in the summertime,” Vail Police Chief Ryan Kenney told the Vail Daily then. “It’s not ideal. It’s very dangerous to have pedestrians and delivery vehicles interacting in such a small area … this is the ultimate solution.”
Rather than deliver directly to businesses and residences, truckers must now drop their cargo at loading docks. Couriers in small electric vehicles then take the goods to their destinations. The program takes 47 trucks off village streets during an average winter day, Vail says.
The ordinance initially made an exception for big commercial carriers, such as FedEx, UPS and the U.S. Postal Service. But last month, Vail began cracking down on them too.
On Sept. 28, a lawyer for the Colorado Motor Carriers Association, which represents the state’s trucking industry, wrote to the Town of Vail asking that it end its courier program and stop enforcing the ban on delivery trucks, which the CMCA considers to be unlawful. The industry group cites federal laws that limit the power of towns to regulate trucking.
A lawyer for Vail wrote back a week later to say that towns can regulate vehicles at pedestrian malls, such as Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall. Vail said it was “entirely inaccurate” for the CMCA to characterize the ordinance as banning deliveries, since they can still be made on foot.
Vail refused to delay enforcement of its ordinance on major carriers, so the CMCA sued it and Kenney on Friday in Denver federal court. The trucking group wants U.S. District Court Judge Charlotte Sweeney to declare the ordinance unconstitutional and unenforceable.
“The town is aware of the complaint,” Vail spokeswoman Kris Widlak said Monday, “and our attorneys are reviewing it now.”
CMCA’s lawsuit claims the ordinance “eliminates competition completely” and “stifles innovation” because “Vail, not the market, will now decide when and how deliveries will be made.”
Exhibits to the lawsuit include emails that shop owners have sent to the Vail Town Council.
“I’ve had deliveries delayed, left unattended for hours without notice, unloaded in Lionhead or just flat out not delivered because of these new rules,” wrote American Ski Exchange owner Tom Higgins, whose shop is in Vail Village, in an email Oct. 3.
“It’s bad business to tick off the delivery men,” Higgins said. “We depend on them.”
Troy Goldberg, who owns Troy’s Ski Shop elsewhere in Vail Village, told council members in late September that FedEx will no longer ship to his store.
“I picked up 50 pairs of ski boots in Gypsum this morning, then drove to the shop and dropped them off. This was not convenient and not a practical way to transport merchandise,” he said, adding that 50 pairs is a small shipment and larger amounts will be even harder.
“I hope you can come to an arrangement with the shipping companies, so we can get our merchandise,” Goldberg wrote in his email.
The CMCA is represented by a trio of lawyers from the Indianapolis firm Scopelitis Garvin Light Hanson & Ferry, plus Sterling LeBoeuf at Davis Graham & Stubbs in Denver.
