In Ski Country
Written by Allen Best - Jun 11, 2009
Ouray County Watch
Posted by Erin Eddy - www.ourayland.com
Steamboat debates merits of ban on real estate signs
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. – Real estate agent Michelle Avery says all real-estate signs should be prohibited by the city’s sign code. “Other resort towns have adopted this ordinance, and I feel strongly that Steamboat should do the same,” she writes in The Steamboat Pilot & Today. “Simply stated, the signs are an eyesore.”
A slew of website bloggers beg to different. One blogger, Ralph Cantafio, contends that outright elimination for aesthetic reasons is simply inappropriate. “Government should be very careful to use only reasonable restrictions,” he writes. Part of his reasoning is that eliminating signs eliminates communication, free communication being a hallmark of a democratic society.
Aspen and T’ride tumble, but not so Jackson Hole
ASPEN, Colo. – Nothing in the numbers being reported in the Aspen area suggest that the economy there has started a comeback. Very much the opposite.
Sales tax collections through the first four months of the year in Aspen were down 20 percent. At nearby Snowmass Village, the drop was more precipitous yet, 30 percent, while real estate transfer tax collections were down 80 percent.
Citing Land Title Guarantee reporting, The Aspen Times says that dollar volume for real estate sales across Pitkin County was off 30 percent compared to 2008 – which ended up being the lowest-volume year since 2004. Down-valley in Garfield County, where the resort economy intersects with the now faltering boom in natural gas drilling, the real estate sales volume was down 80 percent.
In Telluride, the story is the same: sales tax revenues this year have been down 12 to 15 percent, and the real-estate transfer tax at year’s end may total only $750,000, compared to $5 million just two years ago.
Inexplicably, the story in Jackson, Wyo., seems to be different, at least in regard to retail sales, which have been down only 3 percent. Moreover, the Jackson Hole News & Guide reports hope among locals that the economy in Teton County will actually start growing again. Visitation to Yellowstone, after being down for several years, has actually been up 11 percent this year, and at Grand Teton National Park it was even.
What mountain rivers will help Denver grow?
GUNNISON, Colo. – Mountain towns in the Rockies have a symbiotic relationship with Denver and other cities along Colorado’s urbanized, Front Range corridor. It is typically also one of ambivalence
That Front Range corridor already consists of four million people, the single largest source of skiing customers in North America, perhaps anywhere on the planet. That base allows Colorado ski areas with relative proximity to survive even when the more distant - but more lucrative – destination skiers stay at home.
That was evident in last week’s report from Vail Resorts, which has four major ski areas within a two-hour drive of that Front Range population, plus another at Lake Tahoe. While destination skiers dropped to 57 percent of the total visitation this past winter, compared to 63 percent the year before, Vail Resorts had a total decline of skier visits of only 5.3 percent.
But the need of Front Range cities for water causes continuing tension, with reverberations as far away as Jackson, Wyo.
Native supplies were proving inadequate even 125 years ago, when farmers discovered they had insufficient water during late summer to finish their crops. To accommodate their needs, creeks from the western side off the Continental Divide, in the area of Rocky Mountain National Park, were diverted eastward.
Since then, the headwaters areas from Granby southward to Winter Park, Breckenridge, Vail and Aspen, have become configured with an intricate labyrinth of ditches, reservoirs, canals and tunnels, all with the intent of achieving what historian (and Telluride native) David Lavender described as a “massive violation of geography.”
With the easy diversions completed decades ago, Front Range interests began to look for the small increments close in, what has been described as the “last drop,” or with big straws in mind to draw from more distant sources.
The drought of 2002 provoked an even greater intensity of focus. So do population projections that envision the state’s population doubling by the year 2050, with four-fifths of that population growth occurring along the Front Range.
One idea still being studied calls for pumping of water from Green Mountain Reservoir, located on the Blue River, about 20 miles to Dillon Reservoir, for diversion to Denver. A compensatory dam on the Eagle River west of Vail might be the quid pro quo to the Western Slope.
Other ideas look at more distant sources. Aaron Million proposes to withdraw water from the Green River, which starts in Wyoming’s Wind River Range, an hour or two south of the town of Jackson. The river briefly enters Colorado before continuing down to a confluence with the Colorado River near Moab. As such, Million says, Colorado is entitled to the water from the Green as per river compacts reached in 1922 and 1948. But Wyoming isn’t so sure. Even people in Jackson, Wyo., who would be unaffected, have been testy about the idea.
Another idea calls for a diversion from the Yampa River, about 65 miles west of Steamboat Springs. The Yampa is tributary to the Green.
Still another thought sees a potential water source in Blue Mesa Reservoir, west of Gunnison. The water, some 200,000 acre-feet annually, might not actually be withdrawn from the reservoir; but the water stored within the reservoir might be appropriated for diversion to the Front Range.
Recently, reports the Crested Butte News, state representatives visited water district officials in the Gunnison area to talk about the long-term big picture. Harris Sherman, the executive director of the state’s Department of Natural Resources, said the state needed to be “looking 20, 30, 40 years out.”
Complicating the envisioning is the likelihood of reduced water supplies because of warming temperatures and changed precipitation patterns. While scientists remain uncertain, one study at Colorado State University sees a 2 to 20 percent reduction in flows of the upper Colorado River, Sherman noted.
None of the world’s problems were solved at the meeting. But, from the report in the News, it was an uncommonly good one for quotes.
Consider the remarks of Steve Glazer, a long-time water activist from Crested Butte. “There are a plethora of poison pills here,” he said. One such “pill” is that Colorado really is not entitled to as much water as this plan envisions. A study is underway to help sort that out.
Ken Spann, who ranches between Crested Butte and Gunnison, also added some folksiness to the proceedings. He said not enough details about the plan have been provided about the Blue Mesa idea for him to have an informed opinion.
“Without meat on the horse, I can’t tell whether to feed it hay or grain,” said Spann.
Canmore and Banff try to help tourism evolve
CANMORE, Alberta – With real estate development in the tank, Canmore has begun studying how it can foster its tourism economy. The city government has appropriated $80,000 for the study, which will include hiring consultants.
The tourism industry is not broken, said John Samms, who directs an organization called Tourism Canmore. But it is evolving.
Up the road at Banff, municipal representatives were plotting how to sell the Canadian Rockies as an affordable alternative to Whistler for ski vacations when Whistler hosts the Olympics next February.
A bit of grime not all bad in mountain towns
DURANGO, Colo. – Durango has never been a high-end destination resort. True, the town fills with tourists each summer, most drawn to take the narrow-gauge train to Silverton. And in winter there’s a ski area up the road.
But Durango exudes a more earthy, blue-collar feel than even those ski towns that once were mining towns. Durango Telegraph co-editor Will Sands, formerly of Crested Butte and Telluride, says Durango has some hard edges, what he calls “a bit of grease in the town’s silver spoon.”
Yet with plenty of biking trails, whitewater through the middle of town, and sharply defined mountains in the distance, it’s at no loss for outdoor amenities.
“Yep, I’ve seen the royal Hollywood treatment inflicted on two birds of paradise and can tell you first-hand that there are worse creatures lurking in the night than Desert Rock,” says Sand, alluding to a proposed power plant about 50 miles away.
“We’re a pint of excellent microbrew with a thumb-print on the glass,” he concludes.
Summit County prepares to help Senegalese villages
SILVERTHORNE, Colo. – Labor-strapped employers in Summit County a decade ago began recruiting employees from Africa. Among the countries sending residents to work the fast-food joints, clean the hotel rooms and so forth was Senegal, a country considered stable but with a high unemployment rate.
From this intersection of needs now comes an intercultural exchange. The Summit Daily News reports a recent spaghetti dinner at the local Elks Lodge at which Senegalese culture was to be exhibited and funds collected. Plans were to purchase medical supplies, buy mosquito nets, and donate computers to Senegal.
Sun Valley continues debate about airport
KETCHUM, Idaho – The Sun Valley Co., operator of the ski area, continues to argue against a new airport at a location more distant from Ketchum and Sun Valley. Most community groups seem to support a new airport, which would accommodate larger airplanes. But that tentative site will be about twice as far from Sun Valley as the current location at Hailey, about 20 miles from the resort center. Wally Huffman, the company’s director of resort development, fears travelers will be unwilling to pay a premium to fly to the Sun Valley area, rather than to Twin Falls or Boise – Idaho towns that are more distant, but within a couple of hours drive.
Runway extension will increase airport traffic
GYPSUM, Colo. – Eagle County Regional Airport has been closed for the summer while the runway gets extended 1,000 feet. The airport accommodates traffic primarily to the Vail and Beaver Creek area, but also has become a significant portal for Aspen-Snowmass visitors.
When completed, the 9,000-foot-long runway will be better able to accommodate jets flying from distant cities, including New York City. Because of the relatively high elevation, about 6,500 feet, and mountain topography, larger planes taking off from the airport during warmer, summer months cannot carry full passenger loads. This decreases the revenue. A longer runway will also accommodate longer flights during winter, theoretically even from Europe.
As it has for much of the work at the airport during the last quarter-century, the Federal Aviation Administration will pick up 95 percent of the $22 million cost. Compared with the airport at Aspen, where the largest jet holds no more than 74 passengers, many jets at Eagle County Regional have room for up to 194 passengers.
High-tech goodies in hospital at Park City
PARK CITY, Utah – While politicians in Washington D.C. debate how to contain spiraling health-care costs, an $88 million hospital prepares to open near Park City. The Park Record says that a crane was required recently to install a $1.6 million magnetic-resonance imaging machine. “It is rare for a hospital this size to have an MRI like this,” said Jeff Kirk, the medical center’s imaging coordinator. “We will have some really great equipment.” The hospital, located approximately 30 miles from Salt Lake City, also has massive heat lamps, still wrapped in plastic, waiting for their first hypothermia patient. The hospital also has a state-of-the-art decontamination room.
Solar panel installations likely to slow down, too
CARBONDALE, Colo. – While other construction hands have been looking for work, installers of solar panels were working overtime through much of 2009 in the Roaring Fork and Eagle valleys. But now that work will likely slow down, too.
The problem, explains The Aspen Times, is that several organizations that were providing rebates to consumers installing photovoltaic panels have already exhausted their budgets.
For example, when Holy Cross Energy debuted its incentive program in 2004, nobody took advantage of the credits. But last year, 55 projects got rebates. This year, 92 projects had been allocated credits by the end of May.
Causing the surge this year was an additional stimulus, a change in the federal tax code, which added another inducement: a tax credit equal to 30 percent of a solar PV installation cost, minus any rebates.
Mammoth talks about seeming to be on move
MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. – The Sheet, with a touch of sarcasm, reports on a recent economic development meeting in Mammoth Lakes, at which one speaker suggested a slogan for the community: “Mammoth on the Move.”
For a logo, however, she stops short of suggesting a U-Haul truck, says the newspaper.
The town seems to have its fair share of vacant lots and boarded-up buildings. One of the proposals is to erect signs on vacant lots saying, “Future Site of Mixed Use Development.”
Good enough, said one council member, as long as the signs give no completion dates.
Banff wardens allowed to carry guns in park
BANFF, Alberta – Seven wardens in Banff National Park can now pack Heckler and Koch 9mm handguns while patrolling trails, campgrounds and roads. While it is not their main job, the wardens have the power to deal with dangerous, drunken, or speeding drivers on the park’s roads and highways. Parks Canada has authorized 100 wardens across the country to carry guns. A 2001 ruling found that wardens were at risk of grievous bodily harm, possibly death, unless they carried self-defense equipment.
Teachers’ starting pay going up to $54,500
JACKSON, Wyo. – Teachers in Jackson and Teton County may get raises next year, with the starting salary for a teacher with a bachelor’s degree moving up to $54,500, while one with a master’s degree getting not quite $60,000.
In Colorado’s Summit County, base pay for teachers will be at $37,000 during the next academic year. In Aspen, the beginning pay is $40,200. In the Carbondale-Glenwood Springs area, it will be $35,000.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Aspen Thanksgiving bookings ahead of last year's pace
Posted by Erin Eddy
Katie Redding
The Aspen Times
Aspen CO, Colorado
ASPEN — Despite the economic downturn, lodging reservations in Aspen this week are outpacing last year's Thanksgiving week.
On last year's peak night (Friday) during Thanksgiving week, lodges were 40 percent full, according to central reservations agency Stay Aspen Snowmass. This year, they're 50 percent full on the peak night, which is again Friday.
“It's not a bad start, given the circumstances,” said Bill Tomcich, president of Stay Aspen Snowmass.
Though historically a light week for Aspen hotels, Thanksgiving is the traditional beginning of the ski season.
Tomcich attributed the trend to Thanksgiving's 2008 placement at the very end of November and women's World Cup racing, which is slated for Saturday and Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend. The 2008 lodging numbers do include free rooms given to World Cup racers.
Throughout Aspen, hotels reported their bookings were down slightly or up.
At Aspen Square, Thanksgiving bookings are slightly down, said general manager Warren Klug. At the Hotel Aspen and Molly Gibson Lodge, general manager Scott Olpin called this year’s bookings “soft.”
But at the Sky Hotel, bookings are up nearly 80 percent over last year — a trend Alan Cardenas, director of sales and marketing, attributed to Thanksgiving's later date and several promotions at the hotel.
Even so, the rest of December does not look that good, Tomcich said.
After Thanksgiving, declines could be in the “strong double digits” over last year's bookings, Tomcich noted.
But Olpin said he expected Aspen would still be popular during the holiday season, recession or not.
“Everybody is going to do well at Christmas and New Year’s,” he said.
And January remains ahead of last year at this point, though bookings have been losing pace for the last six weeks, Tomcich said.
But travelers are starting to bite at last-minute deals, according to Tomcich.
Certainly, any vacationers who have waited to book rooms for November or December have their choice of deals. Specials currently offered on the Stay Aspen Snowmass website include a Last Minute Special, a World Cup Special and a Recession Recovery package.
Aspen Square is offering value-oriented rates for November and December, “recognizing that people who come Thanksgiving and early in December are value-oriented customers,” said Klug.
At the Hotel Aspen and Molly Gibson Lodge, Olpin said he's also offering lower rates — by 15 or 20 percent — during historically slower periods.
“More money in their pocket to do whatever they want with is, in my mind, the best mode to go with,” said Olpin. “If you give a bottle of champagne, that's great, but what if they're a non-drinking Mormon grandmother?”
The other good news for travelers, said Tomcich, is that travelers who haven't yet booked lodging during the Christmas and New Year’s holiday still have the opportunity to do so.
By this time last year, lodging during the coveted period was scarce.
kredding@aspentimes.com
Katie Redding
The Aspen Times
Aspen CO, Colorado
ASPEN — Despite the economic downturn, lodging reservations in Aspen this week are outpacing last year's Thanksgiving week.
On last year's peak night (Friday) during Thanksgiving week, lodges were 40 percent full, according to central reservations agency Stay Aspen Snowmass. This year, they're 50 percent full on the peak night, which is again Friday.
“It's not a bad start, given the circumstances,” said Bill Tomcich, president of Stay Aspen Snowmass.
Though historically a light week for Aspen hotels, Thanksgiving is the traditional beginning of the ski season.
Tomcich attributed the trend to Thanksgiving's 2008 placement at the very end of November and women's World Cup racing, which is slated for Saturday and Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend. The 2008 lodging numbers do include free rooms given to World Cup racers.
Throughout Aspen, hotels reported their bookings were down slightly or up.
At Aspen Square, Thanksgiving bookings are slightly down, said general manager Warren Klug. At the Hotel Aspen and Molly Gibson Lodge, general manager Scott Olpin called this year’s bookings “soft.”
But at the Sky Hotel, bookings are up nearly 80 percent over last year — a trend Alan Cardenas, director of sales and marketing, attributed to Thanksgiving's later date and several promotions at the hotel.
Even so, the rest of December does not look that good, Tomcich said.
After Thanksgiving, declines could be in the “strong double digits” over last year's bookings, Tomcich noted.
But Olpin said he expected Aspen would still be popular during the holiday season, recession or not.
“Everybody is going to do well at Christmas and New Year’s,” he said.
And January remains ahead of last year at this point, though bookings have been losing pace for the last six weeks, Tomcich said.
But travelers are starting to bite at last-minute deals, according to Tomcich.
Certainly, any vacationers who have waited to book rooms for November or December have their choice of deals. Specials currently offered on the Stay Aspen Snowmass website include a Last Minute Special, a World Cup Special and a Recession Recovery package.
Aspen Square is offering value-oriented rates for November and December, “recognizing that people who come Thanksgiving and early in December are value-oriented customers,” said Klug.
At the Hotel Aspen and Molly Gibson Lodge, Olpin said he's also offering lower rates — by 15 or 20 percent — during historically slower periods.
“More money in their pocket to do whatever they want with is, in my mind, the best mode to go with,” said Olpin. “If you give a bottle of champagne, that's great, but what if they're a non-drinking Mormon grandmother?”
The other good news for travelers, said Tomcich, is that travelers who haven't yet booked lodging during the Christmas and New Year’s holiday still have the opportunity to do so.
By this time last year, lodging during the coveted period was scarce.
kredding@aspentimes.com
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Aspen Economic Times
Posted by: Erin Eddy
www.ourayland.com
www.ridgwayland.com
Written by: Scott Condon
The Aspen Times
Aspen CO, Colorado
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GLENWOOD SPRINGS — The two engines that superheated the economies of Aspen and western Colorado for most of this decade are getting chilled by the national economic meltdown, two experts said Friday.
Second-home development has already tumbled and activity will continue to be slow for the foreseeable future, according to Jim Westkott, the senior demographer for the state of Colorado.
And the frenetic pace of drilling for natural gas in western Garfield County will likely level off because of the economy and infrastructure limitations, said Ben Alexander, associate director of a nonprofit research group called Headwaters Economics.
The men were featured speakers at the annual State of the Valley conference hosted Healthy Mountain Communities in Glenwood Springs on Friday. Healthy Mountain Communities is a Roaring Fork Valley-based nonprofit that helps governments in the region identify issues and solutions.
Westkott said tourism in the Roaring Fork Valley will be hurt by the national economic climate and that a recession will result in the loss of some jobs in the retail and service sectors. Second-home development “will slow considerably,” he said.
Inflated real estate prices haven’t deterred aging baby boomers from gobbling property in Aspen and other mountain paradises in recent years, Westkott said. Their influx and the jobs they create through demands for service have spurred explosive growth in western Colorado.
The drastic drop in second-home development has convinced Westkott and his staff to reconsider growth projections. They don’t believe Eagle and Pitkin counties will grow as fast as they projected as recently as last year — although both counties will continue to grow.
He said the baby boomers will flock to places like Aspen and Vail once the economy improves, and that the current slump creates no reason to panic. “You don’t need to go off chasing bucks,” Westkott said.
Garfield County’s growth will remain closer to projections due to the energy-based economy, he said.
“Natural gas will continue to create some new jobs and population growth, but its development is currently limited by pipeline capacity out of the state,” Westkott said. Alexander said demand is flat for natural gas and that prices, while volatile, have dropped in recent months. That suggests that drilling activity might level off. Western Garfield County has been “ground zero” for the energy boom this decade, along with the area around Pinedale, Wyo., he said.
That boom has created problems. There are more jobs than workers in western Colorado, Alexander noted, so any new openings essentially require the region to import workers. The resort economies of Aspen, Snowmass Village, Glenwood Springs and Vail are competing with the gas patch for workers.
“If you’re not a drug addict you can get a job if you want a job,” Alexander said.
The energy industry pays well, but other fields haven’t kept pace. That makes it difficult to hire essential community workers like teachers and police officers, let alone maids and restaurant workers.
The creation of well-paying jobs and importation of workers has driven up housing prices and the overall cost-of-living in the area. The lack of affordable housing that has long plagued the Roaring Fork and Eagle valleys has now spread to the Grand Valley and places like Rifle, Alexander said.
Meanwhile, Garfield County has done little to diversify its economy, making it susceptible to a bust, according to Alexander.
“A slowdown on the West Slope wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing,” he said. He stressed that he wasn’t promoting job loss or financial hardship for anyone. He believes a cooling off would relieve some of the market forces like the lack of housing and competition for jobs. “It may afford a little breathing room,” he said.
Westkott concurred. “This will bring things down to earth and in the long-term it’s probably a good thing,” he said of the economic climate. Like Alexander, he urged leaders in western Colorado to use the reprieve as a time to plan their communities’ futures.
scondon@aspentimes.com
www.ourayland.com
www.ridgwayland.com
Written by: Scott Condon
The Aspen Times
Aspen CO, Colorado
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GLENWOOD SPRINGS — The two engines that superheated the economies of Aspen and western Colorado for most of this decade are getting chilled by the national economic meltdown, two experts said Friday.
Second-home development has already tumbled and activity will continue to be slow for the foreseeable future, according to Jim Westkott, the senior demographer for the state of Colorado.
And the frenetic pace of drilling for natural gas in western Garfield County will likely level off because of the economy and infrastructure limitations, said Ben Alexander, associate director of a nonprofit research group called Headwaters Economics.
The men were featured speakers at the annual State of the Valley conference hosted Healthy Mountain Communities in Glenwood Springs on Friday. Healthy Mountain Communities is a Roaring Fork Valley-based nonprofit that helps governments in the region identify issues and solutions.
Westkott said tourism in the Roaring Fork Valley will be hurt by the national economic climate and that a recession will result in the loss of some jobs in the retail and service sectors. Second-home development “will slow considerably,” he said.
Inflated real estate prices haven’t deterred aging baby boomers from gobbling property in Aspen and other mountain paradises in recent years, Westkott said. Their influx and the jobs they create through demands for service have spurred explosive growth in western Colorado.
The drastic drop in second-home development has convinced Westkott and his staff to reconsider growth projections. They don’t believe Eagle and Pitkin counties will grow as fast as they projected as recently as last year — although both counties will continue to grow.
He said the baby boomers will flock to places like Aspen and Vail once the economy improves, and that the current slump creates no reason to panic. “You don’t need to go off chasing bucks,” Westkott said.
Garfield County’s growth will remain closer to projections due to the energy-based economy, he said.
“Natural gas will continue to create some new jobs and population growth, but its development is currently limited by pipeline capacity out of the state,” Westkott said. Alexander said demand is flat for natural gas and that prices, while volatile, have dropped in recent months. That suggests that drilling activity might level off. Western Garfield County has been “ground zero” for the energy boom this decade, along with the area around Pinedale, Wyo., he said.
That boom has created problems. There are more jobs than workers in western Colorado, Alexander noted, so any new openings essentially require the region to import workers. The resort economies of Aspen, Snowmass Village, Glenwood Springs and Vail are competing with the gas patch for workers.
“If you’re not a drug addict you can get a job if you want a job,” Alexander said.
The energy industry pays well, but other fields haven’t kept pace. That makes it difficult to hire essential community workers like teachers and police officers, let alone maids and restaurant workers.
The creation of well-paying jobs and importation of workers has driven up housing prices and the overall cost-of-living in the area. The lack of affordable housing that has long plagued the Roaring Fork and Eagle valleys has now spread to the Grand Valley and places like Rifle, Alexander said.
Meanwhile, Garfield County has done little to diversify its economy, making it susceptible to a bust, according to Alexander.
“A slowdown on the West Slope wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing,” he said. He stressed that he wasn’t promoting job loss or financial hardship for anyone. He believes a cooling off would relieve some of the market forces like the lack of housing and competition for jobs. “It may afford a little breathing room,” he said.
Westkott concurred. “This will bring things down to earth and in the long-term it’s probably a good thing,” he said of the economic climate. Like Alexander, he urged leaders in western Colorado to use the reprieve as a time to plan their communities’ futures.
scondon@aspentimes.com
Sunday, October 12, 2008
The ZG Files: Government has big plans for Aspen civic area
Posted by Erin Eddy
Saturday, October 11,
Carolyn Sackariason
Aspen Times Weekly
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ASPEN — A plan is quietly emerging that would overhaul five acres of downtown Aspen, and it includes rebuilding and adding hundreds of thousands of square feet in government offices and public space.
City planners are quick to point out that the ZG Master Plan includes only 80,000 square feet of new buildings, but it is nonetheless the largest civic development undertaking since Aspen’s inception. The plan involves renovating, rebuilding and demolishing existing government-owned buildings.
Over the past few years, a host of public meetings have attempted to frame a discussion about the redevelopment of the area bordered by Main Street, the Pitkin County Library and Rio Grande Park. A handful of civic buildings are presently located in the area, but the ZG plan is an attempt to organize those and other elements into a kind of civic “campus,” while also greatly expanding government office and meeting space.
Still, because of its size and complexity, or perhaps the lack of solid details thus far, the plan has flown mostly under the radar of the collective citizenry. And that bothers government critics, who feel the ZG Master Plan has taken on a life of its own and has become excessive for a small ski town.
“It seems to me that it sprung up like a disease,” said Jasmine Tygre, a former Aspen City Councilwoman and former member of the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Tygre is one of five finalists hoping to be appointed to the council, filling the seat of the late J.E. DeVilbiss, who spoke against the effort. If appointed, Tygre will likely review and possibly vote on the ZG Master Plan.
“People just go ahead with ideas and they have merit but are too grandiose,” Tygre said. “I think it’s pretty scary.”
Project outlines
The ZG Master Plan proposes expanding various structures owned and used by Pitkin County and the city of Aspen, as well as the Aspen Chamber Resort Association (ACRA) offices. The Aspen Art Museum (AAM) also is a partner in the plan, and wishes to move from its current home on the north side of the Roaring Fork River to a more central location.
Underground parking, affordable housing and open space also are part of the proposal.
The largest expansion includes the art museum, which is eyeing the site of the former Aspen Youth Center to build a 30,000-square-foot facility. The county also is asking for 64,000 square feet for a new complex on the site of the existing Pitkin County Annex building and the Zupancis parcel, just to the east.
Planners say the project would establish “modest urban edges” around Galena Plaza, a circular open space where Galena Street dead-ends between the library and the jail.
At the same time, the redevelopment would better connect downtown Aspen with Rio Grande Park and the Roaring Fork River by way of pedestrian paths and a green belt around the property, according to city planners. The so-called Galena Street extension would become a narrow pedestrian path closed to vehicles.
“A clogged artery becomes an open tributary,” said Ben Gagnon, City Hall’s special projects planner who is spearheading the effort.
The site encompasses the land from the library to the parking lot at the corner of Mill Street and Rio Grande Place, including the ACRA offices, the city-owned Rio Grande parking garage and the upper floors of the former youth center. The project area also extends up to Main Street to include the courthouse, the jail, the county annex building and the Zupancis property, which is currently occupied by the Aspen Volunteer Fire Department and the city parking department.
A bureaucratic evolution
The ZG plan rests on the shoulders of what’s known now as the Civic Master Plan, a regulatory document approved by the City Council in 2006 that maps out the future of all city-owned buildings, open space and properties.
The civic plan was created by an advisory group of 24 people, including various citizens and representatives from the business, nonprofit and government sectors. The group started its effort in 2000 and quickly determined that the government’s facilities were woefully inadequate, and a civic center should be created that brings arts and culture into the mix.
City government started a master planning process and invited four other partners to be part of the redevelopment. Established in 2007, the “ZG Partnership” includes the library, Pitkin County, the city of Aspen, ACRA and the art museum.
In the months following, two more public meetings were held and citizens haggled over the size of the buildings, whether more government office space is needed, and whether the art museum should remain in its current location along the river on a city-owned parcel.
A public meeting was held this past March at the Hotel Jerome, where more than 120 people saw the draft plan in 3-D.
Believing there was enough public support, the City Council voted this past May to make the ZG Master Plan an extension of the civic plan. The conceptual plan is now under review by the planning and zoning commission, which will see the latest version on Oct. 14. It’s expected by the end of the year that the P&Z will make a recommendation to the council, which would make a decision on the overriding template by next spring.
When and if the master plan is approved by the City Council, the partners will have to get separate approvals for each of their land-use applications.
“It does not entitle anyone to build anything, it just allows each party to go one by one,” Gagnon said.
From initial planning to final construction, the plan is expected to take 12 to 20 years, with six different phases that will cost hundreds of millions of dollars. (That’s about as precise an estimate as city officials have at this early stage.) The plan also will require several public votes.
Bonds would have to be approved, and the use of tax dollars and the entitlements to public land would have to be endorsed by Aspen voters. So if the art museum wants to build on the youth center site, for example, that will require a majority vote by Aspen residents.
The plan as it stands now includes the expansion of the library on the western edge of Galena Plaza; a town hall meeting room on the roof of the parking garage, city offices where the ACRA building is, two new buildings in the Rio Grande surface parking lot where ACRA, affordable housing and commercial space would be located; a new art museum at the youth center site, and a new county annex building on the eastern edge of the property. An underground parking garage would connect the jail to the courthouse and all the way to the Zupancis property. Underground parking also would be built under the Rio Grande surface lot.
“Obviously this is a highly complicated plan with a lot of moving parts,” Gagnon said.
Justification or rationalization?
City and county officials say that local government has outgrown its existing space and there are not enough meeting rooms for large groups to convene. Officials at ACRA and the art museum also complain that they don’t have enough space to efficiently operate.
They all say their expansions create a vision for the next generation, while at the same time addressing current needs, some of which are more urgent than others.
“There is a rationale for each place,” Gagnon said.
Critics, however, see the plan as more development that will strike another blow to Aspen’s small-town charm. What’s more, they say it’s bureaucracy at its worst.
“The best thing that could happen to this city is to put all of the community development staff on paid leave and the let the town catch its breath,” said Aspen resident Phyllis Bronson, who has spoken against the plan since its inception.
“It’s going to change the character of the town,” she said, adding that she’s afraid there won’t be enough public interest and the plan will be rubber-stamped. “And then one day we wake up and we have a Limelight Lodge.”
Proponents of the plan have a different argument, saying a town center should be a vibrant place where the public should feel welcomed. And that isn’t the case today.
One by one
“Everybody is trying to get a piece of it,” Tygre said. “Once you get in a process, there is no way of getting out of it.”
The central anchor to the overhauled civic area also is perhaps the most controversial — the new art museum.
Supporters argue that an expanded museum would bring vitality to Galena Plaza, which government officials call an under-used public place. The AAM was chosen as a partner because it is the only year-round, privately funded cultural organization in Aspen that can expand without public money.
The art museum, currently 5,650 square feet, has considered an expansion for years. It wasn’t until the city invited the museum to be a partner that the concept had any real possibilities, said Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson, executive director of the AAM.
Zuckerman Jacobson said the needs of the community have outgrown the existing building, noting that last year’s attendance was 12,000 people and, as of July 2008, 21,000 visitors had come through the doors.
This July, the AAM hired architectural firm Shigeru Ban Architects (SBA) to make sure the size of the proposed building fits the site. Zuckerman stresses that a building has not been designed yet.
The AAM also has raised $28.5 million in pledges toward its $35 million capital campaign — $20 million for the new building and $15 million for an endowment.
“We are testing the needs, the square footage and fundraising,” Zuckerman Jacobson said, adding the AAM board of directors signed off on a new museum in August. “It was a way of saying, ‘we are doing what we say we can do.’”
The new building is envisioned to be a signature piece for arts-related events and activities in downtown Aspen. It also would help build an international reputation for the AAM.
And that’s what bothers critics — that the AAM is trying to be more than what it needs to be, and at the expense of the community.
“We don’t need a signature art museum in our little ski town, just like we don’t need Christian Dior,” Bronson said, adding that hiring an architect and fundraising make the new museum look like a done deal. “Enough already.”
Bronson and other critics say public votes should occur before any plans are decided on.
Zuckerman Jacobson said she and the board are just following the government process.
“We are not trying to muscle in anywhere and we will always be respectful of the process,” she said. “This will provide a gathering place for this community and all we are doing is creating that opportunity.”
City and county busting at the seams
In recent years, both the city of Aspen and Pitkin County have renovated their primary office buildings, creating smaller working spaces for employees.
“We are converting closets into offices,” said Pitkin County Public Works Director Brian Pettet, who added that the suggestion of relocating county offices near the airport was determined to be unfeasible.
The court system has grown and needs to take over the first floor of the courthouse, where the assessor and treasurer are now located. Those functions, as well as a host of other administrative services would go in the new annex building.
Underneath, a parking garage would connect the county campus, including the jail and courthouse, and accommodate a fleet of public safety and county vehicles. The subgrade area also would have evidence rooms, interview rooms, a forensic lab and other jail-related functions.
“The county is ready for the ZG Master Plan to be done so we know where we stand,” Pettet said. “The need is strong today but we are designing it for the next generation too.”
The county has socked away about $4 million for a future campus, but it will need much more, which will have to come in the form of a voter-approved bond, Pettet said.
The city is in equally poor shape when it comes to space, Gagnon said, so a city annex building is proposed where ACRA is now. City departments have burst out of City Hall, Gagnon noted, and moved into five satellite offices around town.
“We have simply outgrown City Hall,” he said.
For the tourists and the book worms
Eric Klanderud, representing ACRA, said its current 1,500-square-foot visitor center and office space can’t handle today’s activity. He noted that 18,800 visitors have come through the doors so far this year.
“It’s not a conducive space for the high number of visitors we get,” he said, adding ACRA is proposing 3,000 square feet in a new building at the corner of Mill Street and Rio Grande Place.
Kathy Chandler of the Pitkin County Library said the current 30,000-square-foot facility isn’t at capacity yet, but must plan for the future.
“It wouldn’t be done until 2014 or 2015,” she said. When the city sold the property where the library is, she added, it included a 44-foot easement to the east.
Where to go from here?
How it’s all going to get paid for and who builds first are the big questions. With the economy in the tank and heightening skepticism from the public, the ZG Master Plan could remain pie-in-the-sky planning that stays on paper for years to come.
“There aren’t enough people asking enough questions … Why are they visiting this now?” Tygre said. “There are more things to focus on than civic buildings.”
csack@aspentimes.com
Saturday, October 11,
Carolyn Sackariason
Aspen Times Weekly
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ASPEN — A plan is quietly emerging that would overhaul five acres of downtown Aspen, and it includes rebuilding and adding hundreds of thousands of square feet in government offices and public space.
City planners are quick to point out that the ZG Master Plan includes only 80,000 square feet of new buildings, but it is nonetheless the largest civic development undertaking since Aspen’s inception. The plan involves renovating, rebuilding and demolishing existing government-owned buildings.
Over the past few years, a host of public meetings have attempted to frame a discussion about the redevelopment of the area bordered by Main Street, the Pitkin County Library and Rio Grande Park. A handful of civic buildings are presently located in the area, but the ZG plan is an attempt to organize those and other elements into a kind of civic “campus,” while also greatly expanding government office and meeting space.
Still, because of its size and complexity, or perhaps the lack of solid details thus far, the plan has flown mostly under the radar of the collective citizenry. And that bothers government critics, who feel the ZG Master Plan has taken on a life of its own and has become excessive for a small ski town.
“It seems to me that it sprung up like a disease,” said Jasmine Tygre, a former Aspen City Councilwoman and former member of the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Tygre is one of five finalists hoping to be appointed to the council, filling the seat of the late J.E. DeVilbiss, who spoke against the effort. If appointed, Tygre will likely review and possibly vote on the ZG Master Plan.
“People just go ahead with ideas and they have merit but are too grandiose,” Tygre said. “I think it’s pretty scary.”
Project outlines
The ZG Master Plan proposes expanding various structures owned and used by Pitkin County and the city of Aspen, as well as the Aspen Chamber Resort Association (ACRA) offices. The Aspen Art Museum (AAM) also is a partner in the plan, and wishes to move from its current home on the north side of the Roaring Fork River to a more central location.
Underground parking, affordable housing and open space also are part of the proposal.
The largest expansion includes the art museum, which is eyeing the site of the former Aspen Youth Center to build a 30,000-square-foot facility. The county also is asking for 64,000 square feet for a new complex on the site of the existing Pitkin County Annex building and the Zupancis parcel, just to the east.
Planners say the project would establish “modest urban edges” around Galena Plaza, a circular open space where Galena Street dead-ends between the library and the jail.
At the same time, the redevelopment would better connect downtown Aspen with Rio Grande Park and the Roaring Fork River by way of pedestrian paths and a green belt around the property, according to city planners. The so-called Galena Street extension would become a narrow pedestrian path closed to vehicles.
“A clogged artery becomes an open tributary,” said Ben Gagnon, City Hall’s special projects planner who is spearheading the effort.
The site encompasses the land from the library to the parking lot at the corner of Mill Street and Rio Grande Place, including the ACRA offices, the city-owned Rio Grande parking garage and the upper floors of the former youth center. The project area also extends up to Main Street to include the courthouse, the jail, the county annex building and the Zupancis property, which is currently occupied by the Aspen Volunteer Fire Department and the city parking department.
A bureaucratic evolution
The ZG plan rests on the shoulders of what’s known now as the Civic Master Plan, a regulatory document approved by the City Council in 2006 that maps out the future of all city-owned buildings, open space and properties.
The civic plan was created by an advisory group of 24 people, including various citizens and representatives from the business, nonprofit and government sectors. The group started its effort in 2000 and quickly determined that the government’s facilities were woefully inadequate, and a civic center should be created that brings arts and culture into the mix.
City government started a master planning process and invited four other partners to be part of the redevelopment. Established in 2007, the “ZG Partnership” includes the library, Pitkin County, the city of Aspen, ACRA and the art museum.
In the months following, two more public meetings were held and citizens haggled over the size of the buildings, whether more government office space is needed, and whether the art museum should remain in its current location along the river on a city-owned parcel.
A public meeting was held this past March at the Hotel Jerome, where more than 120 people saw the draft plan in 3-D.
Believing there was enough public support, the City Council voted this past May to make the ZG Master Plan an extension of the civic plan. The conceptual plan is now under review by the planning and zoning commission, which will see the latest version on Oct. 14. It’s expected by the end of the year that the P&Z will make a recommendation to the council, which would make a decision on the overriding template by next spring.
When and if the master plan is approved by the City Council, the partners will have to get separate approvals for each of their land-use applications.
“It does not entitle anyone to build anything, it just allows each party to go one by one,” Gagnon said.
From initial planning to final construction, the plan is expected to take 12 to 20 years, with six different phases that will cost hundreds of millions of dollars. (That’s about as precise an estimate as city officials have at this early stage.) The plan also will require several public votes.
Bonds would have to be approved, and the use of tax dollars and the entitlements to public land would have to be endorsed by Aspen voters. So if the art museum wants to build on the youth center site, for example, that will require a majority vote by Aspen residents.
The plan as it stands now includes the expansion of the library on the western edge of Galena Plaza; a town hall meeting room on the roof of the parking garage, city offices where the ACRA building is, two new buildings in the Rio Grande surface parking lot where ACRA, affordable housing and commercial space would be located; a new art museum at the youth center site, and a new county annex building on the eastern edge of the property. An underground parking garage would connect the jail to the courthouse and all the way to the Zupancis property. Underground parking also would be built under the Rio Grande surface lot.
“Obviously this is a highly complicated plan with a lot of moving parts,” Gagnon said.
Justification or rationalization?
City and county officials say that local government has outgrown its existing space and there are not enough meeting rooms for large groups to convene. Officials at ACRA and the art museum also complain that they don’t have enough space to efficiently operate.
They all say their expansions create a vision for the next generation, while at the same time addressing current needs, some of which are more urgent than others.
“There is a rationale for each place,” Gagnon said.
Critics, however, see the plan as more development that will strike another blow to Aspen’s small-town charm. What’s more, they say it’s bureaucracy at its worst.
“The best thing that could happen to this city is to put all of the community development staff on paid leave and the let the town catch its breath,” said Aspen resident Phyllis Bronson, who has spoken against the plan since its inception.
“It’s going to change the character of the town,” she said, adding that she’s afraid there won’t be enough public interest and the plan will be rubber-stamped. “And then one day we wake up and we have a Limelight Lodge.”
Proponents of the plan have a different argument, saying a town center should be a vibrant place where the public should feel welcomed. And that isn’t the case today.
One by one
“Everybody is trying to get a piece of it,” Tygre said. “Once you get in a process, there is no way of getting out of it.”
The central anchor to the overhauled civic area also is perhaps the most controversial — the new art museum.
Supporters argue that an expanded museum would bring vitality to Galena Plaza, which government officials call an under-used public place. The AAM was chosen as a partner because it is the only year-round, privately funded cultural organization in Aspen that can expand without public money.
The art museum, currently 5,650 square feet, has considered an expansion for years. It wasn’t until the city invited the museum to be a partner that the concept had any real possibilities, said Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson, executive director of the AAM.
Zuckerman Jacobson said the needs of the community have outgrown the existing building, noting that last year’s attendance was 12,000 people and, as of July 2008, 21,000 visitors had come through the doors.
This July, the AAM hired architectural firm Shigeru Ban Architects (SBA) to make sure the size of the proposed building fits the site. Zuckerman stresses that a building has not been designed yet.
The AAM also has raised $28.5 million in pledges toward its $35 million capital campaign — $20 million for the new building and $15 million for an endowment.
“We are testing the needs, the square footage and fundraising,” Zuckerman Jacobson said, adding the AAM board of directors signed off on a new museum in August. “It was a way of saying, ‘we are doing what we say we can do.’”
The new building is envisioned to be a signature piece for arts-related events and activities in downtown Aspen. It also would help build an international reputation for the AAM.
And that’s what bothers critics — that the AAM is trying to be more than what it needs to be, and at the expense of the community.
“We don’t need a signature art museum in our little ski town, just like we don’t need Christian Dior,” Bronson said, adding that hiring an architect and fundraising make the new museum look like a done deal. “Enough already.”
Bronson and other critics say public votes should occur before any plans are decided on.
Zuckerman Jacobson said she and the board are just following the government process.
“We are not trying to muscle in anywhere and we will always be respectful of the process,” she said. “This will provide a gathering place for this community and all we are doing is creating that opportunity.”
City and county busting at the seams
In recent years, both the city of Aspen and Pitkin County have renovated their primary office buildings, creating smaller working spaces for employees.
“We are converting closets into offices,” said Pitkin County Public Works Director Brian Pettet, who added that the suggestion of relocating county offices near the airport was determined to be unfeasible.
The court system has grown and needs to take over the first floor of the courthouse, where the assessor and treasurer are now located. Those functions, as well as a host of other administrative services would go in the new annex building.
Underneath, a parking garage would connect the county campus, including the jail and courthouse, and accommodate a fleet of public safety and county vehicles. The subgrade area also would have evidence rooms, interview rooms, a forensic lab and other jail-related functions.
“The county is ready for the ZG Master Plan to be done so we know where we stand,” Pettet said. “The need is strong today but we are designing it for the next generation too.”
The county has socked away about $4 million for a future campus, but it will need much more, which will have to come in the form of a voter-approved bond, Pettet said.
The city is in equally poor shape when it comes to space, Gagnon said, so a city annex building is proposed where ACRA is now. City departments have burst out of City Hall, Gagnon noted, and moved into five satellite offices around town.
“We have simply outgrown City Hall,” he said.
For the tourists and the book worms
Eric Klanderud, representing ACRA, said its current 1,500-square-foot visitor center and office space can’t handle today’s activity. He noted that 18,800 visitors have come through the doors so far this year.
“It’s not a conducive space for the high number of visitors we get,” he said, adding ACRA is proposing 3,000 square feet in a new building at the corner of Mill Street and Rio Grande Place.
Kathy Chandler of the Pitkin County Library said the current 30,000-square-foot facility isn’t at capacity yet, but must plan for the future.
“It wouldn’t be done until 2014 or 2015,” she said. When the city sold the property where the library is, she added, it included a 44-foot easement to the east.
Where to go from here?
How it’s all going to get paid for and who builds first are the big questions. With the economy in the tank and heightening skepticism from the public, the ZG Master Plan could remain pie-in-the-sky planning that stays on paper for years to come.
“There aren’t enough people asking enough questions … Why are they visiting this now?” Tygre said. “There are more things to focus on than civic buildings.”
csack@aspentimes.com
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