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
Sunday, November 23, 2008
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
Email Print Comment Recommend
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
Email Print Comment Recommend
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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