Grand Junction, CO Special Events & Permits: Park Event Permits (2026)

Grand Junction Municipal Code § 12.04.040(a) gives the City Manager authority to grant a permit to a responsible person for using City parks and their facilities for public entertainment, the sale of food or other refreshments, ball games or other athletic games or sports, and public exhibitions, conditioned on the permittee agreeing to obey all rules the City Manager sets for the care, management and government of the parks. Subsection (b) puts the fee-setting power with the City Council rather than the City Manager: charges for using any public property, including parks and recreation facilities, are established from time to time by Council resolution rather than administratively.

Subsection (c) covers temporary structures tied to a permitted event: the City Manager may allow a permittee to erect temporary buildings or tents for an exhibition or other purpose, but the owner must remove them within five days after the exhibition, fair or entertainment closes; if the owner misses that five-day window, the structure becomes City property outright. The permit requirement sits alongside § 12.04.020's separate ban on using a park for business purposes without a City Manager permit, and § 12.04.030's ban on building fires or posting or painting advertisements in a park except as the City Manager allows.

None of §§ 12.04.020 through .040 sets its own fine, so a violation, including running an unpermitted event or failing to remove a tent in time, is punished under the citywide general penalty in GJMC § 1.04.090.