Nevada attorney sues Vail Resorts over Northstar parking fees

CRYSTAL BAY, Nev. — Two season pass holders at Northstar California ski resort have filed a lawsuit against the resort's owner, Vail Resorts, over new parking fees they say were unjustly imposed.

The ski resort near Truckee announced in October they would begin charging fees for the first time this season at a major parking lot near the premium parking area where fees already were in place.

Steven Kroll, an attorney in Crystal Bay, and resident Ronald Code filed the lawsuit Dec. 6 in Nevada district court, alleging fraud and breach of contract against the resort's Colorado-based owner, Vail Resorts.

Kroll says his main concern, since the resort has a no-refund policy, was the new fees being implemented after purchasing his season pass.

“I was surprised as everybody had to be in discovering, after having purchased my season ticket for Northstar, that one of the main attractions was not there anymore,” Kroll, 79, said in an interview with the Tahoe Daily Tribune. “I believe people can change rules in advance, they can't do it retrospectively.”

The newly established parking fees at the Village View lot are $10 daily Monday through Friday, and $20 on weekends and holidays.

Free parking remains farther away at the Castle Peak lot, where guests board a shuttle bus that takes them to the village.

Vail Resorts officials said they don't comment on pending litigation. They defended the fees earlier as a way to help ease traffic congestion closest to the ski slopes.

In the complaint, Kroll said if he and Code used their passes to the fullest extent, six days a week, they'd pay an extra $2,000 in parking alone.

He also said parking at the free Castle Peak lot adds waiting time in possible bad weather, and danger of having to navigate “long slotted-steel stairways in heavy, clumsy ski boots while bearing their skis and any other equipment.”

A hearing date on the case has not yet been set.

Of note, Kroll has been active from a legal standpoint in the region in previous years, most recently engaging in a years-long legal battle with Nevada-based Incline Village General Improvement District regarding public-versus-private access to the community's beaches.