HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.19880418Continued Meeting Aspen City Council April 18, 1988
ORDINANCE #5, SERIES OF 1988 - Land Use Code 1
ASPEN MOUNTAIN LODGE PUD 3
ORDINANCE #5, SERIES OF 1988 - Land Use Code (Continued) 6
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Continued Meeting Ashen City Council April 18, 1988
Mayor Stirling called the meeting to order at 5:05 p.m. with
Councilmembers Isaac, Tuite, and Gassman present.
ORDINANCE #5, SERIES OF 1988 - Land Use Code
Mayor Stirling opened the public hearing.
Alan Richman, planning director, reminded Council articles 9 and
10 remain to be review. Article 9 is non-conformities, which
Council recently addressed in detail through Ordinance #65, 1987.
Richman said there are no further changes to be made except
removing the limitation of variations of historic structure in
just the R-6 and R-15 districts. Richman said this will now be
allowed in all zone districts.
Richman told Council Article 10 deals with variances and Board of
Adjustment standards on variances. Richman told Council staff
worked in depth on this section and took the draft to the Board
of Adjustment. The Board made significant changes to the
article. Richman said these changes synthesizes very complex
standards into this code to be used by the Board in granting
variances. The Board Chairman requested a change to be made on
page 10-1. One of the standards used is practical difficulty,
which should read unnecessary hardship and practical difficulty."
Richman asked Council to add "unnecessary hardship" to the code.
Richman said Article 10 talks about recommendation of the
planning staff to the Board of Adjustment. Richman said the
planning staff seldom makes recommendations to the Board. They
act in a quasi-judicial status. The staff only makes recommenda-
tions when there are significant policies issues and the Board
wants some advice. Richman suggested striking in (b) and (c) on
page 10-2 any reference to recommendation. Council said that was
acceptable.
Richman told Council the Board of Adjustment has asked for an
expiration procedure. Richman told Council that variances are
specifically lef t out of the vested rights provisions in the
state law. The Board feels their approvals have a specific life
to them. The Board requested a 12 month expiration provision
with an extension provision. Bil Dunaway said he does not see a
need for a variance to expire. Richman said the Board feels when
they grant a variance, it is for a specific circumstance
associated with a parcel at that time, in the neighborhood. If
the variance is not acted on within one year, it ought to expire.
Once a property owner acts on a variance, it is permanent.
Richman said the next items are those Council has not come to a
conclusion on without seeing the specific language. The first of
these is land crossed by more than one zone district. Richman
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Continued Meeting Aspen Citv Council April 18, 1988
said when the proposed use is not allowed in all zone districts,
it is clear an applicant is allowed only to develop the use on
land in which the use is either a permitted or conditional use
and that the external FAR and density would be based on the zone
district in which the use is allowed. Richman said when the use
is allowed in all the zone districts, like a residential zone
district split by R-6 and R-15, planning originally recommended
looking at the stricter of the two. Richman pointed out the R-6
zone allows more units per lot area but less floor area than
does R-15. Richman said the approach staff came up with was to
look at both zone districts and from each particular requirement,
chose the more restrictive except in the case where 75 percent or
more of the property is in one zone district. Richman said an
applicant would also have an opportunity to rezone the parcel.
Council said this section seems fair.
Richman presented the review process graphic, which has been
redrafted since Council first saw it. Richman pointed out, every
public hearing has been identified with an asterisk. Council
was concerned about the use of abbreviations. Richman pointed
out in the 3 step process, at Council and P & Z, consolidated
into the designated process is an actual processing of a land use
application on designated historic structures. This will cut two
steps out of that type of process. Councilman Isaac said he
still does not feel the chart works for a lay person. The chart
stresses the steps as opposed to the process a person would be
interested in. Richman said the handbook will stress individual
activity people are interested in, what are the application
contents, how many steps, how much time is involved, all aspects
of the process will be explained in the handbook. Richman said
an alternative is to have a number of charts focusing on each
process, which got complicated because people are asking for more
than one review at once.
Councilman Gassman said the handbook is a good idea but if this
chart is part of the code, it is very confusing. Mayor Stirling
asked if this could be made more clear for the one- and two-step
processes without taking away the summary advantages of the
chart. Richman said the chart plus some more explanation would
be needed. Councilman Isaac suggested another page listing all
the possible applications and how many steps there are. (Coun-
cilwoman Fallin came into the Council meeting). Richman agreed
the chart does not say everything about all the steps. The
options are to do it in a handbook or to add additional graphics.
Richman said his intention was to avoid a one-time user having to
go through the code but to be able to use the handbook and the
chart. Councilman Gassman suggested a list of what types of
applications apply to each of the review categories, like listing
the~two-step applications.
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Continued Meeting Aspen City Council April 18, 1988
ASPEN MOUNTAIN LODGE PUD
Mayor Stirling said he appreciates the time and effort of all the
citizens who have let Council know their f eelings on both sides
of this issue. Mayor Stirling asked if Council wants to schedule
a meeting in the next 3 days to meet with the Hadid group. Alan
Richman, planning director, said staff would be prepared to meet
with Council this week. Richman said depending on Council's
approach to the issues, there are several methods to the process
of reviewing development alternatives to the site with the
applicant. Richman said the applicant spent some time with the
staff before they got into the extension process. That may have
been too insular in that the staff ' s approach was to look at the
previous approval and focus on working through the process in as
short a time as possible. Richman told Council a short amount
of steps does not always equate to a short amount of time.
Richman suggested opening with Council a pre-application con-
ference. Richman told Council the county land use code authori-
zes staff to meet with P & Z in a non-binding but in-depth review
of an application. Richman said staff tries to identify up front
what the issues will be and tries to get some direction on these
issues. Richman said maybe all the concerns were not anticipated
during this process. As a result of that, the basic assumptions
were unacceptable to the majority of Council. Richman told
Council the city attorney's office feels comfortable with that
approach.
Mayor Stirling asked the status of the planned unit development
approvals. City Manager Bob Anderson told Council the excavation
permit was pulled but there is not excavation going on at the
site. Anderson told Council his interpretation is that the
planned unit development has lapsed. The applicant disputes
this. Mayor Stirling said during the extension request, it was
articulated if this project was extended, the city would still be
faced with a moment of truth about density. Mayor Stirling said
in light of the applicants' expressing a willingness to reduce
the project from the scale it is now, and if the applicant were
to begin the process again starting with conceptual, this process
would still be into the future without there being reliance on
the Council's part or applicant's part. Mayor Stirling said if
Council could meet with the applicant and hammer out the density
so that a number of rooms, mass, floor area ratio and height and
scale could be reached and come to a determination that is
acceptable to both sides, this will not be left until the end of
the process. Mayor Stirling said if it is possible, then the
applicant could be turned back into the process with P & Z to
shape the project and the other issues.
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Continued Meeting Aspen Citv Council AAril 18, 1988
Councilman Tuite asked if the Mayor is including the P & Z in
this work as they have been reviewing the project and have some
feeling for it. Mayor Stirling said his thought is because the
density issues always lie with the Council as a legislative and
political issue, the Council should deal with that issue with the
applicant. Councilman Tuite said he would hate to see the P & Z
left out, Council comes to an agreement and that is not accept-
able to P & Z. Mayor Stirling suggested Council could refer
their decision to P & Z f or comment. Mayor Stirling reiterated
this issue is something the Council has to decide.
Councilman Isaac said his concern is to follow the land use code
and to stay in the process and out of court. Councilman Isaac
said the city should follow the laws they follow f or every other
application for the protection of the city and of the citizens.
Councilman Isaac said the more the city varies from the code,
the more liable they are to lawsuits. Councilman Gassman asked
if the city code has a provision for a pre-application con-
ference. Richman said the new code does have a provision for a
pre-application conference as a staff level function. Richman
said the reason for opening this up is the concern that the staff
did not reflect in the direction given to the applicant all of
the nuances that might come out in the process. Richman said he
is looking for a way to give the applicant as much direction as
possible so conceptual does not become a 6 or 9 month process but
is a way to follow up on what the community would like to see
developed.
City Attorney Taddune said the way the code is presently drafted,
conceptual determinations of the Council are not binding.
Taddune said in discussing the pre-application between Council
and the developer, staff felt that perhaps the conceptual
presentation, given all the information already known about this
project, could suffice for the same purposes. Taddune said this
is a situation where a lot of information is available and to
expedite the process, the conceptual stage could be expanded to
solve as many problems as possible at that stage. This would be
comparable to a pre-application conference described by Richman.
Richman said the conceptual process can be formulated in a number
of ways. Mayor Stirling said if the Council and applicant came
to an agreement on the issues, could this become binding.
Councilman Gassman said the Council and the applicant are going
to have to agree on the density at some point in order for
something to happen. Councilman Isaac said if the applicant is
willing to waive their rights and to agree to some type of
amended process, he is willing to go along with this. City
Attorney Taddune said this should be a forward moving process.
Taddune said Council has taken one position, and it should be
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Continued Meeting Aspen Citv Council April 18, 1988
recognized that they are not reversing themselves by talking with
the applicant.
Mayor Stirling moved to meet Wednesday, April 20, 1988, at 5:00
p.m. until 6:45 p.m. in order to discuss issues of density, size,
number of units, mass, floor area ratio, and height with the
applicant and do this in a spirit of cooperation and consistent
with all decisions the Council has made to this point; seconded
by Councilwoman Fallin.
Taddune said Council is not waiving any positions they have taken
in the past. The applicant is not waiving any positions they
have taken. Councilman Isaac requested the motion add a discus-
sion of process .
Mayor Stirling amended his motion to include a discussion of
process; seconded by Councilwoman Fallin.
Councilman Gassman said density is the critical issue and the
Council should stick to that. Mayor Stirling agreed starting
with that issue. John Sarpa, representing the applicant, said
they welcome the opportunity to talk and get to the issues and
hear Council's concerns. Sarpa said once the key issues are
resolved that the differences of opinions can be easily resolved.
Mayor Stirling said he would like to have the comparative chart
on units for the meeting; how many were torn down, what is
allow able by zoning on site. Councilman Gassman asked if the
staff could present a summary of how the 447 units were arrived
at. Richman said he is not sure of all the steps from beginning
to end.
Mayor Stirling said he would like to know the GMP date for 1988,
what effect on multi-year allocations this has, what is the
status of the 700 South Galena project, the status of the Top of
Mill project. Richman told Council Top of Mill only has concep-
tual approval pending resolution of geotechnical issues.
Councilman Isaac asked the status of the Roberts' GMP approvals.
Mayor Stirling said City Manager Anderson has said these have
expired. Councilman Isaac said he would like to have some
agreement from the applicant on what the process is going to be.
Council said this could be discussed on Wednesday. Mayor
Stirling said Council should be thinking about what is the
density that is the best long term interest for this community
and what is Council willing to live with and what makes sense.
All in favor, motion carried.
Mayor Stirling said this meeting will not be a public hearing and
Council will not take public comment because they have a lot of
work to do on this issue.
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Continued Meeting Aspen City Council April 18, 1988
ORDINANCE #5, SERIES OF 1988 - Land Use Code (Continued)
Richman said the next amendment accomplishes the consolidation of
reviewing several steps along with historic designation. This
will reduce the number of steps. Council agreed with this.
Richman said the next change was a request to add to the criteria
when the Council should or should not waive the six month minimum
lease restriction. If there was displacement, this should be
criteria against waiving the six month minimum lease restric-
tions. Councilwoman Fallin said she feels that "residences" is a
key word. Richman reminded Council the reason he brought this
criteria in was that Council has been facing the issue
repeatedly. Richman said earlier Council agreed it was reason-
able in the lodge district to allow short term. Richman said RMF
was added to the list because the city keeps getting requests to
waive the six month minimum leases. If Council has an overriding
concerns about the residential neighborhood, they do not have to
offer the RMF zone district as an area in which to waive the six
month minimum lease restrictions. Richman said this is a radical
departure from the code and is gotten around by going through the
subdivision exception process.
Councilwoman Fallin said her preference is not to exempt struc-
tures at all in the RMF zone. Councilman Tuite said his concern
is that the city is seeing residences torn down because of the
short term availability which makes it economically more feasible
to redevelop an area. Councilman Tuite said he would like to go
along with no exceptions. Richman said in the single family
zones, there is no waiver of the six month minimum lease restric-
tions allowed. Richman said the code gives Council the flexibil-
ity to look at the six month lease restrictions in the RMF zone.
The concern that is being raised is that the d evelopment com-
munity is looking at selling units as short term units.
Mayor Stirling said he would rather have flexibility so that the
six month minimum lease restrictions could be waived in the RMF
zone. However, he would like displacement as part of the
criteria and that the developer has to provide housing elsewhere
as part of the project. Mayor Stirling said this would be
addressing displacement universally without restricting the next
applicant. Mayor Stirling said if there is any kind of residen-
tial housing on site, the developer would have to deal with the
displacement issue. Mayor Stirling said this will have to be
dealt with separately, not part of this code. Richman said
condominiumization will be subject to the employee housing impact
fee. Richman said the reason staff has taken this approach, as
opposed to mitigation, is that applicants have created rental
histories in order to avoid the city's regulations. Richman said
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Continued Meeting Aspen Citv Council Aril 18, 1988
everyone who condominiumizes must pay to support the employee
housing program because staff has been able to demonstrate that
condominium units are much less affordable to the locals.
Richman said the criteria for waiving the six month minimum
leases is (1) the surrounding neighborhood, (2) where is it
located in proximity to downtown, (3) what is the long range
Aspen area comprehensive plan recommendations. Richman said a
fourth criteria could be related to the previous development on
the parcel. Mayor Stirling suggested looking at a longer history
than 18 months. Councilman Tuite said there would be a downside
in having a developer kick some tenants out 10 years before the
develop the property. Richman suggested language about directly
or indirectly displaced by the condominiumization. This would
not put a length on it but would allow for examination of the
property. Richman said displacement is a very relevant issue to
the long term/short term nature of a neighborhood. Richman said
if the city sets a time frame, the developers will use that to
their advantage.
Councilwoman Fallin said if the city evens allows a waiver of the
six month lease restrictions, they are asking f or more residen-
tial units to be torn down and short term condominiums to be
built. Councilwoman Fallin said pretty soon there won't be any
residential in RMF. Mayor Stirling said the city has to deal
with a responsibility on each developer's part to provide housing
that is lost. Mayor Stirling said this is a separate issue, and
asked what the city can do to put pressure on developers to
provide the housing that is lost.
Margaret Albouy said the city needs to use that same property for
long term housing. Mayor Stirling said the Council needs to see
legislation very rapidly. Councilman Isaac said his concern is
if developers pay into an employee housing pool or create another
unit, this is creating more growth. Every replacement unit is
making the town grow that much faster. Bil Dunaway suggested
expanding the housing impact fee to apply to any conversion or
demolition and development. David White said if Council does
something like this, they should also look at development paying
or building one-half of its required employee units. Currently
the money is just sitting with the housing authority with no
place to build. White said the city has to make construction of
employee housing mandatory to some level.
Margaret Albouy said the city should try to devise someway to
keep what there is. Ms. Albouy said the locals should be able to
live in town. Ms. Albouy said if the city is telling the
developer they can pay to have units built somewhere else, this
will not happen in town. Augie Reno pointed out some people
selling single family residences to a developer may just want to
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Continued Meeting AsAen Citv Council AAril 18, 1988
leave the community. Mayor Stirling said that point is irrele-
vant because the house would still be available to someone at an
affordable rate. Mayor Stirling said he feels an impact fee
would deal with this situation.
Richard Roth suggested Council thinking about a philosophy that
any new development, that the developer be responsible for
increased impacts on traffic, employee housing, child care,
utilities so that in 5 years that responsibility is not thrown
back to the city government. Jim Adamski, housing office, said
Council needs to have a proactive plan where they can start
buying some of these units and start doing a community develop-
ment program. This might be a use of the cash-in-lieu program.
Wainwright Dawson said creating an independent trust for housing
and having it be a public/private fund would be a logical move.
Taddune said the concept of growth paying for itself is a notion
that has been incorporated in all the city's codes for a long
time. Richman agreed the displacement issue needs to addressed.
Richman said he does not have an answer. Shifting the impact fee
to reconstruction would put the idea of the impact fee in danger.
There would have to be an analysis and come up with some rela-
tionship. David White said there is provable growth with
reconstruction in that the new units are larger. Richman said
dealing with redevelopment would be a new concept in the code.
Council agreed staff should pursue this.
Councilwoman Fallin moved that no waiver be granted in RMF f or
six month minimum leases; seconded by Councilman Tuite.
Mayor Stirling said he feels this limits Council too much and
does not give them a chance to address particular situations.
All in f avor, with the exception of Councilman Isaac and Mayor
Stirling. Motion carried.
Richman said criteria (b) can be eliminated because displacement
no longer applies.
Richman said the next issue is if Council wants to give people a
reconstruction credit when they have taken a structure that is on
the historic inventory. This structure can be demolished or it
can be moved. If the structure gets demolished, the owner gets
a reconstruction credit on the site. The issue is if the
structure gets moved and gets designated on the new site, will
the applicant be allowed a reconstruction credit. Richman told
Council the rationale is when a structure is designated, it is
exempt from GMP so the quota has been addressed. This has
created an incentive by giving an applicant the reconstruction
credit.
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Continued Meetinq_ Aspen Citv Council Aril 18, 1988
Richman said this is allowed only within the city and only f or
structures on the inventory which are neither landmarks or in the
historic district. Councilwoman Fallin said putting it within
the city limits put a crimp on this and suggested defining the
areas as the metro area. The land situation within the city is
too restrictive. Richman said the reason for moving within the
city limits is that is the only way the structure can be desig-
nated. The county does not have any preservation mechanism.
Mayor Stirling said he feels the structure should be required to
be a landmark where it sits and anyone who wants to develop the
property has to deal with the structure where it sits. Richman
said this is not allowed to occur within the district. Richman
said there is no protection of houses rated 1, 2, and 3 outside
of the districts. Augie Reno said part of the reason for the
lower scores of some structures was their location and the fabric
of th e neighborhood. Reno said most of the HPC felt that
structures should stay where they are located.
Richman said this is enabling language. An individual still have
the right to demolish a structure on site. This would allow
someone if they do not want to demolish it but also want recogni-
tion they would get a credit. Council agreed to leave the
language in the code and try it.
Richman said the next issue is cash-in-lieu of open space in the
CC district. Bil Dunaway said with this provision, everyone will
want to build rather than have open space and open space is more
important that cash. Mayor Stirling said there is a philosophi-
cal argument made for the character of the downtown, the old
buildings are right to the sidewalk. If that tradition is to be
continued, this should be given as an option at the discretion of
the P & Z. Councilman Gassman disagreed that open space is more
important. A lot of the open space in new buildings is worth-
less. If the city got the money, they could buy something useful
to the community.
Mayor Stirling moved to leave in the language giving discretion
and flexibility regarding open space; seconded by Councilwoman
Fallin. All in favor, with the exception of Councilmembers
Tuite and Isaac. Motion carried.
Richman said in looking at area and bulk in the R-6 district,
Council never looked at the issue of separation of principle and
accessory buildings. Richman said Graeme Means argues in the R-6
zone with the new site coverage requirements, it has become
difficult to make the 10 foot separation. Richman recommended
addressing this only for the R-6 district. Richman suggested
reducing the 10 foot requirement to 5 feet that if the building
official needs to deal with the fire code question, he will have
the authority to deal with that. Richman said the space between
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Continued Meeting Aspen City Council Aril 18, 1988
two dwellings will not be effected. This is just the distance
between principle and accessory buildings. There are still
significant setbacks required in the R-6.
Mayor Stirling moved to reduce this from 10 to 5 feet in the R-6
zone only; seconded by Councilman Isaac.
Graeme Means asked if Council will deal with this in the R-15
zone also. Richman pointed out the setbacks or site coverage
requirements have not been imposed in R-15. Richman said the
situation on R-15 lots is much more expansive and to meet the 10
foot separation requirement is not a hardship.
All in favor, with the exception of Councilwoman Fallin. Motion
carried.
The next issue is the park impact fee on commercial development.
Richman said staff researched this and found that the city used
to apply a park dedication fee to commercial development in the
1970's as well as to condominiumization. Richman told Council
the city was sued for the park dedication fee on condominiumiza-
tion. Richman said commercial development was eliminated from
park dedication fee at that time. Richman said the city has
established a firm relationship between commercial development
and impact on parks. Richman said staff has been able to come up
with a formula to establish this fee.
Mayor Stirling moved that all commercial development pay a park
dedication fee; seconded by Councilman Tuite. All in favor,
motion carried.
Councilwoman Fallin entered into the record a letter from Ed
Zasacky f or the PCPA on why commercial development should pay a
park impact fee.
Richman brought up affordable housing impact fee and pointed out
when Council reviewed the housing guidelines, they increased the
rate of low and moderate income housing cash-in-lieu. Richman
said he recalculated the numbers for this code.
Richman told Council on page 7-63 and 7-64 he would like to clear
up something. Richman said this language only talks about a
non-conforming use. Richman suggested the language state
"subdivided or acquired to create or extend a non-conformity".
Council has no objection to the language.
Richman said when the growth management was revised in 1981,
commercial and lodge development was moved off an open-ended
approach to employee housing to housing a certain percentage of
their employees. Richman said at that time, Council agreed
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Continued Meeting__ Aspen Citv Council April 18, 1988
commercial and lodge development should house 25 percent of their
employees. Richman said this number should have been addressed
every couple of years to see if it was still applicable. Richman
told Council in 1984 or 1985 and the percentage was revised to 35
percent. Richman said as part of the growth management update,
Council should have been asked to raise this percentage. Richman
recommended commercial and lodge development should be required
to house 50 percent of their employees.
Councilman Gassman asked why not house 100 percent. Richman said
the approach that has been taken is to go gradually. Richman
told Council the county is 100 percent. In the city the jump
from 35 to 100 percent is enormous. Richman said he feels
strongly the percentage needs to be increased. Margaret Albouy
said the city should not assume every employee is a new one and
would like Council to see hiring local people encouraged.
Councilman Tuite said this applies to new development, and if
they take an old employee, that old business will have to hire
someone else. Ms. Albouy said there is a mistake in bringing in
outside people for new jobs.
Richard Roth encouraged Council to go with the full 100 percent.
This is a chance to address the issue and the need that is here.
Roth said the developers have to be responsible for the impacts
they create. Richard Compton said developers are buying older
buildings and converting them to employee housing. This reduces
the low price lodging. This may accelerate this problem. David
White said in the past employee housing has been built at 40
percent, and most of this housing has been built by government.
White agree development has to pay for itself. The closer the
city gets to 100 percent, the closer it will move to the solu-
tion. The city is far behind now and will get farther behind
unless this percentage in increased.
Wainwright Dawson agreed with increasing the percentage and said
the development in recent years has not pulled their oars as far
as impacts. Employees are getting priced out and pushed out.
Dawson said this may help to stabilize and re-balance the equity
here. Bruce Baldridge said 100 percent is unnecessary as some
people prefer to live down valley. Roth said the way the code is
written now is deceptive. When it is said that a developer is
providing 100 percent of employee housing, they are providing
100 percent of 35 percent. Councilman Tuite asked what the
impact of this would be on the developer in terms of overall
costs, what percent does the housing play in a development.
Richman said he would have to run the numbers, but it is a large
portion of the development. Richman pointed out the impacts on
commercial are increasing by establishing parking requirements.
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Continued Meeting Aspen City Council April 18, 1988
Councilman Tuite moved to go to 100 percent employee housing
requirement; seconded by Councilman Gassman.
Mayor Stirling asked why there is 100 percent requirement in the
county and not in the city. Richman said there was a determina-
tion that the city was the proper location for development t o
occur and taking this to 100 percent could have the effect of
stopping growth.
All in favor, with the exception of Councilman Isaac. Motion
carried.
Dan Arrow asked about the food stand issue and the political
signs. Richman said these will be in the draft presented at the
April 25 meeting. Arrow asked Council to reconsider the cash-in-
lieu of open space and to better define what Council wants open
space to be. Mayor Stirling said there is still discretion; this
does not eliminate open space entirely. Margaret Albouy said she
has a concern about a development code. Ms. Albouy questioned
whether this code revision will control the excess commercial
development that has already occurred. Ms. Albouy said the goal
of the planning office is to maintain the capacity between
commercial space, bed space and ski capacity.
Richman said the process is a two-fold one. This initial effort
has been to simplify and streamline the code. The staf f has
focused on policy issues, like condominiumization and employee
housing. Richman told Council staff has not tried to deal with
comprehensive and broad planning issues. Richman said staff will
come back to Council right after this process with a list of
issues that did not get addressed, like displacement, floor area
ratios in other zones. Richman said he will let Council and the
community prioritize these issues. Ms. Albouy asked if the
community is going to lose the essential services, like gas
stations. Ms. Albouy said the city needs to develop a code to
protect the permanent community. This process should have
tremendous community input.
Richman said one possible effect of the increase in employee
housing requirements is to increase the value of the commercial
space that exists. One reason there is so much displacement is
that existing space is more valuable because it is exempt from
growth management. Richman said an indirect effect of making
employee housing requirements so high may be to force local
serving uses out of town. Councilman Isaac said he feels there
will be other long range and secondary impacts from the 100
percent employee housing f ee. The city could lose a lot of the
older lodges. This drastic increase may be over reacting to the
current problem.
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Continued Meeting Aspen Citv Council April__18, 1988
Richard Roth said this seems like a development approval process.
There is no vision of what the city would like the community to
be in the year 2000. This seems like no planning, only develop-
ment approval. Mayor Stirling said the staff is working on the
comprehensive plan, which is in the constant process of being
updated. Richman said the staff has completed transportation,
parks and open space, but the land use plan is not done. Richman
said the staff is required to respond to service demands placed
on the office.
Bruce Kerr , owner of a 22 room lodge, said he feels this code
gives no flexibility with what he can do his property. There are
provisions for PUD which allow large projects to be built, but he
cannot do anything. Kerr told Council he is housing not only his
employees but employees that work 2 or 3 other places. Kerr said
he would like to see the long term planning process address the
way the town can keep some of the smaller lodges and let them do
some expanding to make them more economically viable. Council
requested Richman to add this to the list for follow up.
Councilwoman Fallin said her plan in initiating this code process
was to bring it up to date and compile it so that it was read-
able. This issues have to be addressed in another forum.
David White said he feels the code is a lot clearer. White said
what to be done for the permanent community has to be addressed.
This goes along with preserving the character of town and the
older lodges. Wainwright Dawson said a public/private partner-
ship should be encouraged to solve these problems. The employer
should get the bonus for helping over 100 percent employee
solution.
The meeting adjourned at 7:45 p.m.
Kathryn Koch, City Clerk
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