HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.19890817Continued Meeting Aspen Citv Council August 17, 1989
Mayor Stirling called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. with
Councilmembers Tuite, Peters, Crockett and Gassman present.
Mayor Stirling reported Council met in executive session .August
15th with Susan Griffiths to hear her report on the Aspen Mountain
Lodge (Hadid) lawsuits. Mayor Stirling read a press release about
the pending litigation and the referendum petitions submitted to
Council in October 1988. Mayor Stirling said the city is currently
a named defendant in three cases which challenge the validity of
the approvals given to the revised hotel plans as well as assert
the right of referendum to these approvals. The City Council has
determined to rely on the litigation to resolve these disputes.
In furtherance of this objective, the Council will encourage an
expeditious review of these by the district judge.
Scott Condon asked if Council is going to make public the report
from Susan Griffiths. Sandy Stuller, city attorney, said this
report constitutes confidential, privileged information and advice
of counsel. Ms. Stuller said the city will continue to participate
in the litigation as a defendant and rely on the courts to make a
determination of the rights of the parties involved.
ASPEN MEADOWS
George Stranahan, representing the consortium, presented a letter
which summarizes the last 18 months work on the property and the
consortium's assessment of the issues. Mayor Stirling said there
was a request in June from the Aspen Valley Improvement Association
to zone this property. It was decided at that time to not rezone
the Meadows but to seek more information and consider the request
in August. There was a work session August 7 at which Council
decided that rezoning prior to going through a master planning
process would not make sense. Tom Baker, planning office, said
staff views zoning as an implementation tool that would follow the
planning process. Council agreed that zoning would be the last
issue in the sequence.
Councilman Peters moved that in light of the overburdened work load
of the planning office and furthering Council's goal of proceeding
with a master plan for the Meadows, the Council proceed to hire an
independent planner to work as point person for the city of Aspen
to facilitate in developing a master plan for the Aspen Meadows;
seconded by Councilman Crockett. All in favor, motion carried.
Councilman Gassman said he feels that Bill Kane would make a good
choice. Councilman Gassman said it would not make sense to hire
a planner that the consortium would oppose. The intent in going
through this exercise is to get more involvement and public
comment. Councilman Gassman said Kane is an obvious choice because
he is familiar with the property and with the non-profit groups.
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Continued Meeting Aspen City Council August 17, 1989
Councilman Gassman moved to direct the manager and acting planner
director to negotiate a contract and scope of work with Design
Workshop and Bill Kane as the point person for master planning the
Meadows; seconded by Councilman Peters.
Mayor Stirling asked if there is any difficulty in hiring to work
for the city the planner who was the point person for the current
applicant. Ms. Stuller said the only difficult would be Kane's in
that he is changing employers . He will have to be sure that he has
full authority to disclose any information, that he will be
protected against conflict of interest. Stranahan told Council
they are comfortable; they have worked with Kane, who understands
the problems and the terrain very well. Gideon Kaufman said the
non-profits have presented Council a letter with the conditions
they feel need to be met in terms of the work this group is to do.
Kaufman said if these are the goals and direction, they have no
problem with Kane doing the work.
Councilman Peters said the fact that Council wants to hire Kane,
who was the consortium's planner, represents an act of faith and
gesture of willingness to work together to achieve goals that will
be satisfying to everyone. Kaufman said there are some basic
threshold issues that need to be addressed in terms of the needs
of the consortium in order for them to participate. Kaufman said
at the beginning the consortium will have to make sure that their
goals and those of the city Council coincide. Councilman Crockett
said he wants to proceed in a spirit of mutual achievement and of
mutual goals.
All in favor, motion carried.
Mayor Stirling said Council felt that in the SPA application, which
the non-profits and Hadid organization had worked on for 18 months,
the issue of the commercial use of the property should be reduced
before the property had been adequately master planned. Mayor
Stirling said Council would rather reverse the emphasis and look
at the needs of the long time users, the property as a campus, what
are the additional things that are needed to add to the campus
feeling, and the boarder interests of the community as a whole.
Mayor Stirling said Council feels the city should initiate the
process in concert with the users of the property and do it as
rapidly as possible.
Mayor Stirling said Kane has suggested 10 work sessions followed
by a joint P & Z and Council public hearing schedule. The first
item is to have an existing condition and site visit meeting. The
second would be to identify goals and objectives. Mayor Stirling
said he would like Council to specifically identify their goals and
objectives. Other topics are site analysis; building program; site
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Continued Meeting Aspen City Council August 17, 1989
plan alternatives and site testing; drafting a master plan to
include housing, parking, open space and an economic strategy for
the property; public hearings on the draft plan; plan refinement;
plan adoption, and zoning for the property.
Councilman Crockett said a threshold issue is validating the
existing work that has been done and continuing the traffic study
to keep the process moving. Baker told Council staff has the
ability to obtain the traffic study data from Hadid Aspen Holdings,
if that is what Council wants. Councilman Peters said verification
of the data should be part of the existing conditions and site
visit. Councilman Peters said besides a land use analysis, he
would also like to see a financial analysis. Councilman Gassman
said his intent in suggesting a financial analysis is that so many
of the decisions are going to be driven by the users' financial
interests, as well as the city's, that this should be done by a
financial planner. Councilman Gassman said he does not have a
clear picture of what this person would be doing, but the economics
and finances are a large part of the solution to this project.
Al Blomquist suggested Council let Bill Kane retain any specialized
consultants that he needs. Stranahan said they would like to be
involved in the selection process as a lot of the data is extremely
proprietary. Councilman Crockett said the non-profit organizations
should be involved in every aspect of this. Mayor Stirling said
he has suggested the city may purchase open space on this property.
The financial consultant can look at appropriate funding, if the
community wants to purchase some of the land, and private/public
partnerships.
Mayor Stirling moved to consider the hiring of a financial advisor
or consultant and determine who that person will be at the work
session August 21; seconded by Councilman Crockett. All in favor,
motion carried.
Mayor Stirling said the Council can consider itself a committee and
work with a person from each member of the consortium. Mayor
Stirling said the Council would have to meet as often as possible
for the next 8 weeks to get through drafting the plan. Mayor
Stirling said an alternative is to have one or two Councilmembers
meet with the consortium and one member of P & Z to get to the
draft plan. Councilman Peters said it is incumbent on Council to
take this responsibility of working through the draft plan.
Councilman Peters said one rationale for expressing disfavor of the
SPA application was to encourage more public participation.
Councilman Peters said it is important to have the whole Council
work on this process.
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Continued Meeting Aspen City Council August 17, 1989
Walter Ganz said if each of these sessions is public with public
comment, the process will be delayed; the same public will be
saying the same things over and over again. Ganz said the process
can take place with greater consideration with a smaller committee
and then integrate it into the public process. Councilman Tuite
said Council can speed the process up as meeting as a group. A lot
of work has been done by the P & Z. Mayor Stirling agreed the
community will be better served if all five Council can commit to
this, and these are public sessions. Councilman Peters said he
feels it is important that the public have access to the planning
process. Council scheduled a work session Monday, August 21, at
5:00 p.m.
Roger Hunt asked how this process plugs into the P & Z process;
what product will Council come up with and where does it enter to
process. Mayor Stirling said there needs to be a clear direction
on this project from Council. Mayor Stirling said the draft master
plan will then go to P & Z for public hearings. Hunt said
technical issues will come up, which are very vital, and these
should be dealt with by P & Z. Councilman Peters said the Council
will be participating in the program stage of this project.
Council decided to meet every Wednesday starting August 30th at 5
p.m. until October.
Councilman Peters moved that the city undertake the financing of
the continuing traffic study started by the consortium and to
negotiate purchase of the already collected data for the purposes
of providing data for the new master planning process; seconded by
Councilman Gassman.
City Manager Bob Anderson said staff would like to use the current
consultant for the traffic data gathering purposes. Council
agreed.
All in favor, motion carried.
Council decided a record should be kept of these sessions. These
will be study sessions. The sessions will be held in Council
Chambers.
Councilman Gassman moved to authorize Bill Kane , on behalf of the
city, to negotiate purchase or donation of other studies that might
have been done that would be helpful in the master planning;
seconded by Councilman Crockett. All in favor, motion carried.
Kaufman asked that Council anticipate getting on a P & Z schedule.
Councilman Peters said if there is a reason to accelerate this
process, he would like to know these reasons. Kaufman said the
Aspen Institute needs to get its program brochures out for the 1990
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Continued Meeting Asuen City Council August 17, 1989
season. The facilities at the Meadows can no longer accommodate
the Institute. Kaufman said if work is not done to upgrade these
facilities, the Institute will have to cut back on its programming
Kau man said they cannot wait until next May to decide where to
have these seminars.
Mayor Stirling moved to direct the acting planning director to
tentatively schedule in November hearings for the proposed Meadows
master plan; seconded by Councilman Tuite.
Councilman Tuite said this should not preclude the P & Z from being
duly constituted during this process and have the P & Z deal with
this on a parallel track. Baker said Council could refer issues
to P & Z at any point in the process.
All in favor, motion carried.
Mayor Stirling said one issue is if Council is willing to consider
some commercial development that is separate from the basic users
of the campus. Councilman Peters said this should come out in the
process. Council agreed they are willing to look at every aspect
of the property and related proposals. Perry Harvey asked if at
the end of the master plan process, the owners of the property are
to prepare a SPA application, which will then go to P & Z and
Council for approvals. Mayor Stirling said he feels after the
master plan has been adopted, Council would address the SPA and the
zoning. Sandy Stuller, city attorney, said in the SPA process, the
master plan is the zoning. Ms. Stuller said the planning con-
sultant should incorporate the summary of steps including SPA
approval. Ms. Stuller said in SPA, the building envelopes,
permitted uses and density are established in the master plan.
City Manager Bob Anderson told Council he has met with RNL, and
they have recommended bringing more evaluation to the parking
structure to see if it can be brought within the budget. Council-
man Peters said RNL will bring a new district manager into town for
two days a week. Councilman Peters said the consensus of staff is
not to hire a new construction manager but to give RNL a chance to
do that. Councilman Peters said RNL has demonstrated they are
willing to do this. Councilman Peters said there will be another
soils analysis done at no further cost. Anderson said any further
cost savings will come from a further in-depth cost engineering
session.
Council adjourned at 7:05 p.m.
Kathryn S~ Koch, City Clerk
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