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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.regular.202001286 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL JANUARY 28TH, 2020 Councilwoman Richards said she’s looking forward to the full presentation but doesn’t like the affordable housing cash in lieu. The community has grown beyond waiving this any longer so let’s discuss further next time. Councilman Hauenstein said Rachel beat him to the punch regarding the affordable housing and he’s also not in favor of this. He’s supportive of the FTE but he can’t get his head around the cash in lieu. He would like more discussion on page 235 of packet between the relationship between HPC and the parcel. He doesn’t want to see this moved at a later date. He also wants to discuss dust mitigation and how it will be achieved. Councilman Mesirow thanked them and said it’s really exciting. This building was his office for many years. He also wants to discuss the cash in lieu and understand which number we’re looking at and why. Mr. True asked Anne if she is an employee of the institute and she said she gives a few tours in the summer for a Plato’s gift certificate. Mr. True advised her to recuse herself from the vote. Councilman Hauenstein moved to approve Ordinance #01 on first reading, Councilwoman Richards seconded. Roll call vote: Mesirow, yes; Richards, yes; Hauenstein, yes; Torre, yes. 4-0, motion carried. Council took a dinner break at 7:00 p.m. and reconvened at 7:30 p.m. PUBLIC HEARING: Resolution #006, Series of 2020 – 101. W. Main Street, Molly Gibson Lodge. Extension of Vested Rights and Minor Amendment to a Project Review. Mike Kramer Mr. Kramer said the applicant is Haymax Lodging, LLC represented by Stan Clauson and Michael Brown. This would be a 24-month extension and an amendment to a previous approval from 2015. He showed a vicinity map and pointed out parcels 1 and 2 and the existing conditions. He said there are 53 lodge units in total. There was a 2015 final approval and that granted a vested right for a lodge component on parcel 1. This lodge would contain 68 lodge units. Within parcel 1 and the lodge, there is one onsite affordable housing unit. Parcel 2 contains the free market component and two free market residences were approved on this lot. This approval was vested for 3 years, up to 2018, at which time, the applicant came in for an extension of vested rights. Council approved the extension for 2 years and is now vested until June 4th, 2020. Approval of tonight’s request would establish vesting until June 24th, 2022. This would reduce construction impacts of two lodges; Molly Gibson and Hotel Aspen and would eliminate a loss of bed base for both lodges. The minor amendment to the project review would remove the onsite affordable housing unit. Regarding this, APCHA doesn’t support it. We looked at the growth management section of the code and there are certain provisions that give definition to this onsite unit, making it a multi-family designation. The current code would require this to remain onsite when demolition happens. Staff is recommending that the needs of the city are not served by perpetuating a land use approval that does not meet current height and floor area standards. We are suggesting council to deny Resolution #006. Councilman Mesirow asked for explanation of 1.75 FTE onsite, but 3.23 required and what is happening with the remainder. Mr. Kramer said there is no remainder because there is an existing unit on the property today. The 3.23 is a factor of the unit lodge increase and the free market component of the project. Further discussion and explanation ensued. 7 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL JANUARY 28TH, 2020 Councilman Hauenstein said there was a small lodge incentive waiver granted in 2015 and asked what the allowance was at that time. Mr. Kramer said the mitigation rate approved in 2015 was 10%. APPLICANT PRESENTATION: Stan Clauson and Michael Brown Mr. Clauson showed the development of the design. He said the building permit will be ready for submission in March 2020 and this was a project extremely well received at the time. The benefits to the city include an additional Wecycle station and consecutive construction for two hotels. Hotel Aspen will commence construction in the fall of 2020 and open in May 2022. Molly Gibson would submit for permit around the time Hotel Aspen opens and commence construction in the Spring of 2023. This is to ensure the construction activity on Main Street won’t be disruptive, minimize impact on city room inventory during construction, protect existing jobs at both places and allow Hotel Aspen to settle in before the Molly Gibson commences construction. The extension is not something we need, it’s to phase the construction. The minor amendment requested, is to move the onsite one-bedroom affordable housing unit offsite. Moving the affordable housing unit offsite will allow for increased meeting space to be provided subgrade and allows better functionality. Excess onsite affordable housing is provided at Hotel Aspen, which will also serve the Molly Gibson. Mr. Clauson showed the proposed lower level. He said that staff has followed APCHA’s recommendation, but in this case, it’s worth another look. The applicant is willing to provide an additional .5 FTE to the affordable housing mitigation if affordable housing can be provided. The applicant requests that this additional .5 FTE option can be confirmed at a later date to ensure viability. If additional affordable housing is not viable, the applicant will stay with the original proposal. Mr. Brown said they reviewed the vesting rights criteria and they’ve met all of that. Section D was called into question. He read the excerpt for the board regarding the needs of the city. He said the needs of the city are met and by phasing, it’s easier for their employees and members of the community. I understand you’re protecting the land use code, and if you choose not to grant our request, we’re not going to forgo submitting for building permit. Councilman Mesirow clarified that if council doesn’t approve the extension, that both hotels will get built concurrently and Mr. Brown said yes, there will be overlap and it’s unavoidable. Councilman Hauenstein said he can support the 24-month extension, but his conditions would be that the onsite and workforce housing remains onsite. There is a precedent for workforce housing mitigation to be for an increase in vested rights to be tied to what the workforce housing mitigation is at the time. Stan. The small lodge benefit is in the code, it would have the same benefits. Mr. Kramer clarified the code regarding the lodge incentive. Councilwoman Richards said she would love to have more research on this as well. She said that it can’t be promised that both hotels will stay under the same ownership, but this request does have value in the phasing of construction. She asked where the affordable housing unit is located, and Mr. Brown said on the ground floor on Main Street. She supports Ward’s comments entirely and she supports the extension but leaving the affordable housing unit onsite. She’s not seeing a real compelling reason to remove it. Mr. Brown said if you guys don’t see the benefit, he will deal the hand he’s dealt. 8 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL JANUARY 28TH, 2020 Councilwoman Mullins asked about the parking and how it went from 10 to 34 in the new land use code. Mr. Kramer explained that 34 would be the max. Mayor Torre opened the public hearing. Mayor Torre closed the public hearing. Councilwoman Mullins said she’s never been a fan of extending vested rights. As the land use code is changing, it’s for the better and this is 7 years from approval, if we extend it again. We worked really hard in 2016-17 to bring Main Street back to character. The onsite affordable housing, you don’t see very often, so she would like to keep this. She doesn’t support the extension of the vesting and she doesn’t want to see us lose the onsite affordable housing. Councilman Mesirow said he is not in favor of removing the affordable housing unit. As to the extension, he likes the phasing perspective. He’s willing to grant the extension, but there’s a condition for affordable housing, and he would like to keep that. Mayor Torre said that for years, he hasn’t supported extending vested rights. He’s not as compelled by the overlap, so he doesn’t support this. Councilwoman Richards said this is a challenge for all of us. She appreciates the applicants. For her, at the end of the day, you will go and exercise these rights. There’s nothing compelling as a community benefit for her and in that final analysis, if there had been more, she’d be open. She’s joining the deniers. Councilman Hauenstein asked if there was an increase in FTE’s, would that have any bearing on council to approve the extension and Mr. Brown said absolutely not, we can’t offer that. Councilman Hauenstein moved to deny Resolution #006, Councilman Mesirow seconded. Roll call vote: Richards, yes; Mesirow, yes; Mullins, yes; Hauenstein, yes; Torre, yes. 5-0, motion carried ACTION ITEMS: Resolution #003, Series of 2020 - City of Aspen 2020 Regional State and Federal Policy Agenda Tara Nelson Ms. Nelson summarized what is in front of them and the changes that were made. She said she is happy to go through any other changes. Councilman Hauenstein corrected his phone number on page 500. Councilwoman Richards said this is really great work and she thanked Ms. Nelson for staying through all of the other items. She fully supports the living breathing document. Councilwoman Mullins said she has no more changes but said this is so great and the enthusiasm is so great. She asked Ms. Nelson if she will be down in Denver on the 13th, and said she thinks that’s great to put this into practice. We will come to you from now on with changes. Thanks, so much for all of your hard work and a great product. It’s been a great addition to our council repertoire. Councilman Hauenstein thanked Ms. Nelson so much for her efforts and said she really produced a great product. Ms. Nelson said she shares the sentiments with other city staff who worked on this as well.