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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.apz.20251105 SPECIAL MEETING ASPEN PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 5TH, 2025 Commissioners in attendance: Charlie Tarver, Richard Lai, Maryann Pitt, Eric Knight, Tom Gorman, Ken Canfield and Teraissa McGovern. Staff present: Daniel Folke, Planning Director Jeff Barnhill, Senior Planner Kyla Smits, Project Manager Matt Kuhn, Parks Director Jim True, Special Counsel Tracy Terry, Deputy City Clerk Commissioner Comments: Mr. Tarver asked where he can get the traffic study numbers for decisions that need to be made. Mr. True replied that he can submit a CORA request. Staff Comments: None. Public Comments: None. Minutes: Mr. Canfield moved to approve the minutes for August 6th, 2025, and the motion was seconded by Ms. McGovern. Ms. McGovern asked for a roll call vote. Roll call vote: Mr. Tarver, abstain; Ms. Pitt, yes; Mr. Knight, abstain; Mr. Gorman, abstain; Mr. Canfield, yes; Ms. McGovern, yes. Motion passes Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest: Ms. Juskys has a conflict and is not in attendance. Submission of Public Notice for Agenda Items: Notice was provided. Public Hearing: 150 N 8th St - Major Subdivision Amendment, Floor Area Variance, Amendment to a City Council Ordinance Applicant requested continuance to December 3rd, 2025 Motion: Mr. Canfield moved to continue to December 3rd, seconded by Mr. Knight. Roll call vote: Mr. Tarver, yes; Ms. Pitt, yes; Mr. Knight, yes; Mr. Gorman, yes; Mr. Canfield, yes; Ms. McGovern, yes. Passes 6-0 Public Hearing: Aspen Meadows Affordable Housing Project - Major Planned Development Amendment - Floor Area Variance - Amendment to a Council Ordinance Public Comment: Debbie Falender said she is concerned about who can live in these units. It is easy to get seduced by 3 entities with Aspen in their name. Elona Nemath said having the physicists on campus and not commuting from Snowmass will obviously reduce traffic. It is an important part of the community. SPECIAL MEETING ASPEN PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 5TH, 2025 Patti Fox was employed by the Aspen Center for Physics and said these people from all over the world have no other place to meet. Lisa Markalunas said they are under parked and is advocating for retaining the trail easement. Ricky McCue said when they have built and added on to this site previously, no parking was created. Gloria Crystal wants to address the physicists’ comment at the first meeting about having to drive in from Snowmass. This is not affordable housing for the City of Aspen. Grace Kuterez works for the Aspen Institute and was able to move here in 2021 because they had housing. She now lives in free market housing, but the housing she was able to get from the Institute in the beginning helped her create a life here. Moore Huffman works at the Aspen Institute in IT and a challenge for him is that he is a first responder but lives in Old Snowmass. Employees are not able to sustain the housing environment. Daron Zemnick works for the Aspen Meadows. Lack of affordable housing makes it hard to retain employees. Hilary Rustpass is the VP and COO of the Aspen Music Festival. She is speaking as the HR and facilities lead at the AMFS and said affordability is becoming an existential challenge in terms of maintaining a labor force that supports what they do. John Bennett said this is about preserving the heart of the Aspen idea. Speaking for the Aspen Center for Physics, it is not growing through this plan, it is a transportation management plan taking cars off Highway 82 by reducing physicists commuting onto campus and traveling through the West End. Kate Summers is a local attorney with Garfield and Hecht representing the West End Community Association. Restricting public comment is a violation of due process in open meetings law. The Association has strong objections set forth in the October 31st submission. Commission rebuttal: Mr. Tarver asked about the last comment. Mr. True said she misrepresented what he said and what he said was the chairman would accept additional public comment and it would be for those who have not already made comment, however it is up to the determination of the chairman. Staff Presentation: Jeff Barnhill, Senior Planner Mr. Barnhill went over the information from his presentation that is in the agenda. He refreshed them on requests versus staff recommendations. Board Questions: The commissioners asked about the easement, traffic flow, parking, employee generation, employee audits, vesting, and unit sizes. Ms. Garrow asked that P&Z include in their recommendation a condition that Council have three different ordinances for clarity and consistency. 3-minute recess SPECIAL MEETING ASPEN PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 5TH, 2025 Mr. Lai did not return from the recess. Board Discussion: Mr. Canfield said this will impact an iconic neighborhood. He intends to vote to approve the application with some conditions. He does not think it makes sense to subject this neighborhood to 10 years of vesting. He thinks the project is consistent to the Aspen area community plan and the academic zone district. His concern about the 4th street corridor is that it has not been looked at and the public comment has raised a lot of concerns. He thinks it needs to be studied to address public concern. Regarding parking, he largely agrees with the applicant that the usual parking requirement does not apply here. Mr. Knight said he is on the same page as Ken, especially with the conditions on vesting. Ms. Pitt said she agrees with Ken regarding traffic. Ms. McGovern stopped Ms. Pitt and said they need to extend the meeting. Motion: Mr. Canfield moved to continue the meeting until 7:30pm, seconded by Mr. Tarver. Roll call vote: Mr. Tarver, yes; Ms. Pitt, yes; Mr. Knight, yes; Mr. Gorman, yes; Mr. Canfield, yes; Ms. McGovern, yes. Passes 6-0 Ms. Pitt continued that she would like 3 years’ vested rights and limits on vesting extensions and construction should be limited to a certain amount of time. Mr. Gorman agrees with Ken and agrees that there should be three resolutions. He would like a condition that a traffic study include a detailed look at the impacts to this neighborhood, and the vesting period be addressed as a distinct topic. Ms. McGovern does not like how the project was presented to them. She thinks each project can be better and they should have taken the time to make them better and having them all in one application does not allow that. She said they spent so much time talking about parking that they never got to massing. She does not think they are ready to go forward. She does not think the community should take on the burden of housing physicist’s families. Motion: Mr. Canfield moved to approve resolution 10 with four additional conditions, seconded by Mr. Knight. Mr. Gorman moved to add the condition of three resolutions. No second Roll call vote on Mr. Canfields motion: Mr. Tarver, yes; Ms. Pitt, yes; Mr. Knight, yes; Mr. Gorman, yes; Mr. Canfield, yes; Ms. McGovern, no. Motion Passes 5-1. Adjourn: Mr. Gorman motioned to adjourn; Mr. Canfield seconded. All in favor. Tracy Terry, Deputy City Clerk