Golden officials are hoping the Clear Creek corridor will be less congested on July 27 — the Saturday of Buffalo Bill Days — as it plans to prohibit outfitters from selling or renting innertubes that day.
The allowance already exists in the municipal code, as Golden can prohibit tube rentals and retail sales for up to five days of the year for special event permittees. If so, the dates must be set before April 30.
At an April 23 work session, City Council directed staff to set July 27 as this year’s only date, so the city can collect data and ideally provide some relief along the corridor during the summer’s busiest day.
According to Deputy City Manager Carly Lorentz, the Saturday of last year’s Buffalo Bill Days drew 13,264 people based on cell phone data. The next-closest was the Independence Day celebration with 8,372 people. Those numbers are only people who attended the events, and don’t include others who were just recreating along the creek, Lorentz clarified.
The councilors also decided the impacted outfitters should be able to make up the tube rental allotment they’ll miss on July 27 on other days. Golden currently has two licensed outfitters that are capped each day of the week based on their best rental days in 2021.
In addition to the July 27 prohibition, the councilors directed staff to draft an ordinance that would allow Golden to limit innertube sales on peak days in July and August. Lorentz said it would have a first reading at the May 14 City Council meeting, and then have a second reading and public hearing on May 28.
According to Lorentz, last July, Golden outfitters sold about 1,100 innertubes throughout the whole month.
The city’s Clear Creek subcommittee recommended both drafting the ordinance and this year’s July 27 prohibition.
Several outfitters and community members spoke against the measures, saying they would hurt local businesses during their busiest season. People will still bring their own tubes to Clear Creek July 27, but without any of the safety education or equipment the outfitters provide, they said.
Additionally, they explained, the municipal code provision was to allow Golden to host kayaking races and other whitewater events with minimal interference from tubers. It wasn’t crafted for large-scale public events like Buffalo Bill Days.
Mayor Laura Weinberg, who opposed both measures during the work session, said late April was too close to tubing season to make decisions like this. She thought the city had been in a good rhythm of evaluating the previous tubing season in October, and then getting public input and making plans over the winter for the upcoming season.
Councilors Patty Evans and Bill Fisher, who are on the creek subcommittee, understood the concern and said addressing the corridor is a continuous effort that requires creativity and compromise to balance all users’ needs. They felt both measures would go toward alleviating congestion along the corridor, which is a consistent concern among residents.
‘Worth the experiment’
While many Goldenites opposed Golden changing the outfitters’ operations this season, Lorentz and the councilors said Clear Creek congestion and tubers are complaints they hear about continually. They acknowledged Goldenites have varying views about the corridor’s worst issues and how to address them, but controlling the crowds is a recurring theme.
The city tried to collect data last summer on how many tubers were bringing their own versus acquiring them from outfitters, but struggled to get accurate data partly because the RFID-enabled stickers didn’t always stick to the innertubes. Lorentz and others pointed out that, with a one-day prohibition, July 27 could be an opportunity to find that datapoint.
“I think it’s worth the experiment to (prohibit tube sales and rentals) for a day … and see if the residents feel differently,” Councilor Rob Reed said.
Perhaps, as Councilor Don Cameron added, it could prove the outfitters’ point that the bring-your-own-tube crowd is bigger than most Goldenites realize.
“If the data ends up supporting the outfitters … we can go back to the residents who say, ‘It’s the outfitters who are causing the problem,’” Cameron continued. “Without getting this piece of data, we’re just going to be having the same discussion.”
Weinberg was concerned about tubers’ safety, recalling the long line at the Buffalo Bill Days’ beer stand last year. On a day when Golden’s emergency responders are already stretched thin, she believed leaving people on their own without the outfitters’ safety equipment or education would be damaging.
However, most councilors were in favor of moving forward with the July 27 prohibition.
Overall, City Manager Scott Vargo believed Golden would get much better data this summer versus last year. The city’s launching “a 2.0 version” of its RFID-enabled stickers and investing in camera analytics with artificial intelligence software that can better identify and record tubers going down the creek, he explained.
Additionally, the city’s modifying the corridor ahead of the 2024 season, such as removing sand from Clear Creek Whitewater Park’s beach area and widening the north trail near the RV park, Lorentz and Vargo said.
Both councilors and staff members were interested to review all the corridor changes, including the two discussed measures, at the 2024 tubing season recap in October.