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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.special.20211208 1 SPECIAL MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL DECEMBER 08, 2021 At 7:00 p.m. Mayor Torre called the regular meeting to order with Councilors Doyle, Hauenstein, Richards, and Mesirow in attendance. Mayor Torre said the Sister Cities room is also available for extra space. He said they will be allowing public comment this evening and will be limiting it to two minutes. This is a full room and there are around 75 people online as well. We are not looking for any applause after comments are made and we are asking for your patience. This is not a ban on short-term rentals. This council is interested in a pause, and we are working in your best interest. ORDINANCE #27, SERIES OF 2021 – An Ordinance Imposing a Temporary Moratorium on the Acceptance of Any New Land Use Application Seeking a Development Order or Notice of Approval, and on the Acceptance of Certain Building Permit applications for All Residential Uses in All Zone Districts within the City; and on the Issuance of New Vacation Rental Permits; and Declaring an Emergency – Phillip Supino, Community Development Director Mr. Supino passed around a revised copy of the ordinance and explained the changes that were made. He said the effect of the ordinance is to pause significant residential construction for six months, exempt commercial, lodge, 100% AH, and minor residential work, and to pause 2022 STR permit issuance. Staff recommends extending 2021 permits to September 30th, 2022, and allow transfers of permits between owners, not between properties. Mr. Supino said there were 182 new STR applicants today and as of 4 pm, there are 81 awaiting response. He explained the public and stakeholder outreach plan and forum in early January. Mayor Torre brought up the September 30th date and suggested they make this time period shorter. City Manager, Sara Ott, said the rationale is that they are anticipating the work will be done prior to that date in quarters one and two. We didn’t want to stop the permits in the middle of a high season. There will be some overlap of permits under the old regulations and permits under the new regulations; it’s a trade-off. CITIZEN COMMENTS: Bill Guth – Mr. Guth said he lives on 8th street. He thanked council for their work and service. He said over 600 people have signed a petition opposing their actions tonight. Most of us in this room are opposed. There are better ways to accomplish your goals. You need to focus on the long-term impacts and goals, and he doesn’t think things can be accomplished in 30 or 60 days. He is a champion of affordable housing. You don’t understand the impacts that this will have on many people. Mayor Torre asked Mr. Guth if he rents any short-term rentals and he said no. Chris Burley – Mr. Burley said he is a former Aspen resident and now lives in Carbondale due to a lack of housing. He is in the real estate business. The effect that this motion will put on our household would be devastating. His main client in Aspen is someone who works in residential development. This is not going to improve the affordable housing issue here. Summit county has built thousands of units and you guys have built a few hundred. Let’s see action. Kim Raymond – Ms. Raymond is a local architect and has been in town for 40 years. This will have a huge impact on the work force. It will happen when permits dry up, and there be a lot of families who have already suffered from COVID and being shut down. She looked up in the charter the emergency 2 SPECIAL MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL DECEMBER 08, 2021 ordinance and referenced section 4.11. She asked what the emergency is. Rushing something like this through, makes all of us feel really uneasy. Dwayne Romero – Mr. Romero is a citizen of Aspen here with his wife and family. He said he appreciates council’s service. He said this action reminds him of the 2007 emergency preservation ordinance and it was a couple years before we got out of that. There is a bit of faith and confidence in our council to understanding what you are hearing. He feels like the decision has already made though. Please try to listen and refine and sharpen the instrument. Ed Foran – Mr. Foran has been a resident since 1993. He has deep concerns about the devastating effect this could have on this community. Create an advisory committee so you have stakeholders involved who are champions of affordable housing. There are concerns of how this could impact the mental health of this community, which is fragile as it is. This could be very devastating. Bill Stirling – Mr. Stirling said he asked Phillip if vacant lots are included in this. Mr. Supino said if a development order was needed for the vacant lot, then it would be included in the moratorium. Mr. Stirling said when he served the city in the 80’s, the council voted in a couple of moratoriums, and one put a moratorium on demolition of historic structures and that was an example for him of an emergency. Out of that, grew a lot of things for historic preservation. He feels this is an abuse of the process to use an emergency ordinance and locks the public out. He asked if this is really an emergency. Steven May – Mr. May is an architect in Glenwood but has worked on many affordable housing projects in Aspen. There have been costs and financial implications that haven’t been thought through. He said potentially tomorrow he would lose 70 % of his projects. He explained the amount of time it takes to work on one project and the time it takes for permitting. There are more impacts than what you are considering. Alexandra George – Ms. George said she was here last night. Her concerns reflect what everyone else says. Many of us have applied for permits today generally out of fear in what can happen in 24 hours’ notice. Many of us are concerned. This will skew the numbers. She has yet to hear anyone that is in favor of this moratorium. Joshua Landis – Mr. Landis said he is a 30 year Aspen local, and an APCHA graduate and seems like there are only locals here in the room. We’re the ones showing up and we are your people. We all recognize there is a problem and want to fix it but the effects of this are multi-faceted. This process is flawed. He is most upset with Skippy because he is in the STR business. It’s a perceived issue that should make you guys want to table this. We all want to collaborate to fix this. Bob Bowden – Mr. Bowden has seen a number of moratoriums and has been here for 40 years. The moratorium is the most sacred authority we give you for when something is truly endangered. The historic emergency isn’t the same as this. We work really hard and fast to make the best decisions we can. This is hundreds of people you are going to affect. If you vote yes, I would ask that you suspend your salaries from the city until the moratorium is lifted. Ryan Walterscheid – Mr. Walterscheid is a local architect and said he emailed council last night, but also wanted to come speak in person. He can understand the emergent nature of getting people to apply and the city being very short staffed. He has lived here long enough to witness three moratoriums. To Steven’s point, it takes a long time to get through this process. You have a number of brokers who sold 3 SPECIAL MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL DECEMBER 08, 2021 property early summer and we have been working with them for months now and a lot of money has been spent. We are under a tremendous amount of pressure. So many community members are engaged with these residential properties. I’ve seen this happen with commercial development, but never residential. Please alter the wording of what you have proposed. Ashley Chod – Ms. Chod thanked council for their service. If you take a pause, you create a false market. There is a rush now and when you reopen it up, there will be another rush. If you are confident in what you are passing, you wouldn’t have done it within 24 hours. Thank you so much for giving us public comment, but you advertised for no public comment. She now lives in Basalt because she can’t afford to live here either. If you pass this, you’ll lose her trust and the others in the room. She’s not against a fair playing field or regulation, but please take the time to make these huge decisions with more time. Grant Purcell – Mr. Purcell said he’s fortunate enough to live in a 400,000 trailer with APCHA. He’s heard a lot of experts since he’s been here, and they know what they are talking about. They are the people you need to engage and involve, but that is not what happened. This is where the middle class comes from. It’s disappointing. Maleah Nobrega – She is the owner of 700 S. Garmisch, which she bought a year ago. She has been tirelessly going through this process. It’s been brutal but have still been excited. They have been through this process for the past year. We have done the mitigation and just have not submitted the permit. The whole world is contending with low staff. We thought we were safe and would be able to build. It’s a big deal. Alex Glenn – Mr. Glenn said he fully supports this decision. He knows it’s difficult but thinks it’s the right direction. Judd Clarence – Mr. Clarence represents clients who have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and were ready to submit but are now not able to. He’s disturbed by this process council has taken and there is no emergency. He echoes what people have already said. You people are our representatives. We say no, so why are you moving forward? Chris Bendon – Mr. Bendon said he is feeling the impact and spent a lot of time on the phone today with clients. The impact to these folks is severe and it’s a real impact. He asked some questions based on what he does how this is all going to work. Mr. True said we shouldn’t try to evaluate individual scenarios at this time without knowing all of the facts. It’s difficult to try to have that kind of dialogue right now. Mr. Bendon would like to have this level of clarity as soon as possible. There are a lot of people in complete freak out mode in the community right now. Mr. Supino said that Mr. Bendon knows how to get in touch with staff with any questions. Mr. Bendon said he sent an email about three hours ago. Michael Eddinger – Mr. Eddinger thanked council for the opportunity to speak. He’s heard a lot about the emergent nature of this issue. He’s assuming there is no time or funds to study this. If we have resources already in place that could be applied to bring people on concurrently to study this, it would make much more sense. 4 SPECIAL MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL DECEMBER 08, 2021 Lex Tarumianz – Mr. Tarumianz thanked council for being here. The comments he has heard have been spot on. He’s thinking back to 2012 said it didn’t make the downtown core any more vibrant. He’s asking council to really tap the breaks here. We need to look at the land use code in its entirety. It’s highly complicated. Let’s get the community involved. He doesn’t see the value in an emergency moratorium such as this. Jennifer Fulton – Ms. Fulton said she’s raising two daughters and lives in employee housing. She doesn’t think taking a gigantic segment of our economy is going to help the big picture. Let’s think about other alternatives. She does a lot of rentals in town, and it provides a lot of jobs. Think of all the trades involved in building a house. Please consider other ideas without taking away jobs. Kathy Bender – Ms. Bender said she is an owner at Fasching House, and she plans on renting during the summer. She never would have bought her property if she knew she couldn’t do rentals. How does the city benefit if she can’t rent and her place sits empty for 9 months of the year? it’s unfair to punish the people who have played by the rules all along. Emily Kelly – Ms. Kelly says she’s owned a property for 24 years and our ability to rent their place is an affordable way for people to enjoy Aspen. Mayor Torre reiterated that it is not their intention to ban short term rentals from Aspen. Laura Moon – Ms. Moon echoed what Kim Raymond and Joshua Landis said. Workers are hard to find ever since COVID hit. She suggests not throwing the baby out with the bath water and said this is going to put a short-term pinch on people locally. This is not an emergency. John Ward – Mr. Ward said he just finished the APCHA meeting with Skippy and Rachel. The way to solve this is not through a moratorium. You will exacerbate the employment crunch we have today. Rethink this. Elizabeth Selzer – Ms. Selzer said she was here last night and that she is an accounting professional in the vacation rental industry. She wants to reiterate what she said last night, and she said council’s community has spoken to them tonight. It’s your constituency who is against this. An unidentified female said that she supports the moratorium and thanked council for making the difficult decision. Cindy Houben – Ms. Houben thanked council for bringing this forward and considering the moratorium. Anytime a moratorium has been in place, it has benefitted the community. This will benefit the whole community in the long run. Mike Maple – Mr. Maple said he’s incredibly disappointed in the city with this abuse of power. There are supposed to be facts to support this decision. He encourages members of the community who have the resources, to challenge this decision. You aren’t going to find the resources to get this done in six months. Larissa Louka – Ms. Louka said she loves Aspen and were planning on becoming owners of a STR. We have a closing in a couple of days. She urges city council to make the right decision. This feels like communism. 5 SPECIAL MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL DECEMBER 08, 2021 Caet May – Ms. May asked council if their opinion matters to them. She said she received an email from the city stating that this moratorium is already in place. Mayor Torre asked her to send the email over to him. An unidentified male thanked council for bringing this up and considering the long-term impacts and how STR’s have affecting the working class in this community. Sarah Broughton – Ms. Broughton said Bob Bowden said something that gleaned with her. The world doesn’t stop when we are dealing with big issues. She has seen time and time again, well-intentioned policies that go wrong. She understands the issues at hand. Let’s roll up our sleeves and collectively see what we can do, but it’s not by stopping. Kristi Gilliam – Ms. Gilliam said she’s not in agreement with this at all. She’s purchased a place in 2001. She doesn’t understand why we’re doing this. Heather Huitt – Ms. Huitt said her parents bought her condo in 1988. We used to not rent at all, but she would like the option of renting it. Katy Frisch – Ms. Frisch said thank you to council for sticking through this. She’s been listening and a couple things struck her. She said we haven’t heard from council as to why each of you believe this moratorium solves a problem and what problem it solves. She thinks this is a flawed process. She doesn’t see the public part of this. Monica Columbo – Ms. Columbo bought a place in 2011. When you place a moratorium on permits, it means you are thinking about banning STR’s. This has created a lot of confusion in the market. Jason Fishburn – Mr. Fishburn said he’s reiterating a lot of what was said tonight. At the end of the day, he feels it’s a very rushed process. A lot of people depend on this income. Mr. True added a letter from Ken Citron of Klein Cote Edwards Citron LLC as an objection to the ordinance. Chris Bryan – Mr. Bryan is an attorney for Garfield & Hecht. The city is swinging a sledgehammer instead of a scalpel. This is not an emergency and you have caught everyone by surprise. He spoke to over a dozen people who are concerned today, and many are contemplating legal actions. Don’t call this an emergency when it is not. This will be lucrative for lawyers. COUNCIL COMMENTS: Councilor Doyle said he has heard the words abrupt and sudden quite a bit tonight. Michael Miracle showed him an article from a 2017 issue of Outside Magazine, titled “Did Air B&B kill the mountain town?” The STR’s are affecting mountain towns across the west and the nation. He doesn’t see this as a sudden or abrupt occurrence. We’ve got some serious problems here in our town and our community has spoken to us about the over development issues here as well. Those people have spoken to us, and we are answering to other community members as well. Well deliberated over this for months to come to this conclusion. Councilor Richards said when we are looking at 750 million of current permit valuation in the queue, that is 750 million dollars’ worth of construction that is titled residential but will end up being 6 SPECIAL MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL DECEMBER 08, 2021 unmitigated lodging. None of these residences were approved to be mini hotels which they are now being used for. A line has to be drawn somewhere and you have to stop the bleeding somewhere. The number of letters and emails she’s received are from people buying with commercial interest, not a residential interest. There are real impacts whether folks think there are or not. This past summer, we’ve heard about over tourism and people are stressed and not enjoying their town anymore. She wants to settle one big myth – this won’t create a lot of affordable housing. This is about the continued community impacts for her. This is the last question as to whether Aspen is a community or a commodity. We’re hearing a lot of fear from people who already have a unit or a condo in our lodging zone and those places are not at risk. It’s appropriate for us to take some action. When the purchases of residential properties are not for residential purposes, she as a leader, has to take a look at it. There is no chapter on STR’s in the community plan. We need to think about what kind of a community we are going to be in the future. Thank you for understanding, it’s a tough issue for all of us. Councilor Mesirow thanked everyone for coming. Our listening to or contemplation of this issue, didn’t start tonight. It’s been a decade plus of listening to our community. The underlying need for this moment has been anything but sudden. He has talked to so many of you about this and the hemorrhaging on our community. In the past two years, the dam broke. Our opportunity here is to stand in and do something about that. He loved that Rachel said community or commodity. It’s not a question. He said in the 60’s, Sheldon and Edwards made some tough decisions that drew angry crowds, but we look back now at a model they created that worked. That model is now broken. It’s not your fault. It doesn’t mean that all STR’s and development are bad, but the impacts of the residential sector and development are fighting our community needs. He became convinced that we need the space and container to build a new system that works for everyone. This space might come with some pain, but you are all invited to it. He will be supporting this. Councilor Hauenstein thanked everyone for coming tonight. It’s been painful listening to people talk. We have to put all of this in balance. His driving document is the community plan and values in the community plan are still very much a part of the community and it calls for a balance. We are out of balance. Commercial use used to be the driving force of this town and now it’s residential. All of our lodges, legacy lodges, all of them are STR’s. What has happened with our community is that the neighborhoods have become commercial cores. There has been a conflation of work force housing and we’ve driven a lot of employees out of our community. The pressures on our community are not unique to Aspen. We’re asking for a pause to do a study to find out what kinds of regulations are appropriate to contain our community. The fabric of my community is not for sale. He’s been studying his short-term rental effects for years. We are asking to continue the status quo. We aren’t telling you as of tomorrow, you can’t rent your properties. It will take time. We will be reaching out for public engagement. It is an emergency. We are losing the quality of our town. There’s no segue way from subsidized to free market housing here in Aspen. Unmitigated consumerism takes advantage of the working class. He is going to support this because he thinks it is an emergency. Mayor Torre said he agrees with a lot of what was said. When it comes to short term rentals, we allowed the ability for these permits to go forward and today we took in over 180 new permits. You’re right, If there are people out there in the world wondering if they should buy property here in Aspen because they can turn around and short term rent it, and they are turned off from that, he’s going to have to live with that. The people that actually live here is what is important to me. Regardless of what you’ve read or heard, this council doesn’t have the intention of stopping the STR’s that we already have here in 7 SPECIAL MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL DECEMBER 08, 2021 Aspen. The actual scope of what we are trying to impact, is very narrow. We are not looking to eliminate this completely; we are looking to modify and amend it. In the city of Aspen, 30% of our free-market housing is lived in and dropping. The reason we are taking a pause on accepting residential applications, is so we can amend the code to better align it with the AACP. Your permitting process may not be slowed, because as you know, it takes months to get a permit through a review process right now. My heart goes out to the people speaking about their livelihood going away. We are going to get out of this, on both fronts, as quickly as possible. These won’t be sweeping changes and it will strengthen our community going forward. He said he appreciates everyone coming out tonight. Our intention is to get the best for our community. It comes with pain for all of us. He wants to have a cooperative relationship moving forward. Thank you all so much. We will all move forward together. Councilor Mesirow motioned to approve with language as amended; Councilor Richards seconded. Councilor Hauenstein offered an amendment to extend the date one week for the short-term rental applications. Council did not agree to extend the date. Roll call vote: Doyle, yes; Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. 5-0, motion carried. Councilor Richards motioned to adjourn; Council Mesirow seconded. Roll call vote: Doyle, yes; Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. 5-0, motion carried. ______________________________ City Clerk, Nicole Henning