HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.apz.19810113
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RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
100 Leaves
FORM" C.F.HOECKELa.a.&l.C:l.
SPE C IAL MEETING
ASPEN PlANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION
JANUARY 13, 1981
Olof Hedstrom, Chairman, called the meeting to order with members Hunt, Klar, Pardee, Tygre,
and Blomquist present.
LITILE ANNIE'S SKI AREA
Olof announced this was a special meeting for further
consideration of Little Annie's Ski Area.
Joe Wells, Planning Office, said the goal for this meeting
was to begin to narrow down the list of concerns in regards
to Little Annie and see if these concerns could be resolved.
In order to help the commission to focus on some of these
concerns, Joe included a list of issues that were identified
by Little Annie. Obviously, there rray be additional concerns
on the part of P & Z.' However, the best way to begin the
process would be to begin with those issues identified on
that list. Wells said the commission should try to get
through as many of the items as they were capable of doing
but he didn't think they would be able to wrap it up at
this meeting.
Olof thought it would be appropriate to take the concerns
in the order they appeared on the list. A consultant to
Little Annie said they would like to go down through the
list, give the P & Z an indication of what they have done
with regard to each of those items and what they would like
to do, with direction from the commission as to if these ideas
are appropriate.
Another consultant, Ted, said he would like to talk about
the lower terminal and the subplan that is related only
to the lower tenninal and the transportation building. He
said that one of the significant things they have done is
to reduce the footprint which each member of the commission
had in front of them. It is a simplified copy that shows
only the property lines, with red lines that shows the
building the way it was before and in black lines the way
they have changed the footprint. It results in a reduction
of the footprint of 6,469 sq. ft.. This will be accomplished
by putting a good deal of the monocable storage underground
rather than above the surface. Ted said this would simplify
the circulation pattern and perhaps take care of the problem
the Gant owners had with the proj ect. Prior to this, they
had the buses stopping right next to the property line and
exiting back out on Ute Ave. What they have done is push
the transportation building up closer to the property line.
This has the buses coming in off of Ute Ave. with the buses,
the buses stop between the transportation building and the
tenninal building, letting off the passengers where they
can get their tickets and come across the bridge and load on
the monocable car and go on up.
They have further simplified it by having taxis and limosines
come in and use the same entrance and exit. This has eliminatec
the need for a separate ticket building on Ute Ave. The
simplification of the footprint and relocating the building
on the site should make the neighbors happy and still provides
Little Annie's with a very effective transportation plan.
Ted said they tried to keep the same character they had in the
previous design. They building now, at its highest point, is
44 feet high. Part of the reason for the heigth, which
they could reduce, is because one half of the roof, a small
portion, is peircing into the viewplane 6 feet 8 inches.
The other part of the roof peirces the viewplane 5 feet. These
figures come from TriCo. They are very small roofs, and its
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RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
100 Leaves
FORM ~I C. F. H OECl(El B. 8. '" l. CO.
SPECIAL MEETING
ASPEN PlANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION
JANUARY 13, 1981
not like the whole building peirces the viewplane. One of the
significant reasons why this was cone is because it rratches the
buildings in the neighborhood. They tried to keep the character
of the Gant and the Clarendon with a concrete building being
covered with wood.
Another reason for projecting these roofs was to create clear
story areas which would let the south sunlight come into the
back areas of the building. If they didn't have the clear story,
that area would remain a dark, cold area.
Ted said a variance would be in order because it is an insignificant
portion of the building that is peircing that viewplane.
Roger Hunt asked if this is the final size of the building with
no future expansion of the building anticipated. Ron Garfield
said the building is being constructed so that if the second
phase would ever be approved, there would be no construction on
the site would be required. Ted said this plan does take care
of the full operation right now. Lee Pardee asked about the
total square footage and Dave said it is 25,000 ft. above the
ground, not counting the storage area underneath, which is
substantial.
Ted said the footprint is 20,247 sq. ft. This is a reduction of
6,000 sq. ft. The total square footage is one floor that is
20,247 sq. ft., and the other floor is 18,791 sq. ft.
Joe Wells said he believed the circulation is an improvement and
the Gant should be pleased with the change. He said it rerrains
to be seen how the Gant will respond to having a building so
close to the property line and he will leave that to Nick to
comment on. Joe said he has had some discussions with Jim Reeser
about the viewplane and he is confident that his calculations
about the viewplane are accurate.
Olof asked Nick, representing the Gant, if these changes were
new to him. Nick said they got some rraterials earlier in the
day and since he represents a board across the country he
obviously hasn't consulted with them but he can tell the commission
his reaction. The circulation plan is clearly better from the
standpoint of the Gant. Also, the reduction in heigth of the
building also pleases them. One thing Nick said he needs to do
is go out to the site and have someone measure the 28 feet so
he can see which Gant owners are involved. It appears to him
that the placement is sufficiently far from the building and it
is not a major problem, but he'll have to take a look.
Olof thought that for the benefit of the applicants, the commission
should give their reactions on an inforrral basis.
Blomquist - improvement
Tygre - improvement
Hunt - improvement, no problem with it
Hedstrom - definate improvement and they have addressed some of
the concerns of the commission in a positive and
constructive 1IlaIlor.
Klar - improvement
Pardee - improvement
Ng 68
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RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
100 Leaves
FORM ~G C. F. H OrCKEl a. a. I> L. co.
SPECIAL MEETING
ASPEN PlANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION
JANUARY 13, 1981
The second item on the list of concerns was Impact on Ute Cemetary.
Bill Kane addressed this and said they have not begun to resolve
anything on it yet. He said their " proposal at this point is
to meet with the Aspen Historical Society and the Cemetary Core of
the City of Aspen which is technically responsible for the cemetary.
Kane said some of their thoughts are to try and improve the land-
scaping the area and try to provide some security for the area
since the biggest problem for the cemetary has been vandalism. Kane
said they may offer some fencing or some other type of buffer
techniques that may preserve the identity of the cemetary.
Bill Kane again addressed the third item on the list which was
Pedestrian/Vehicular Conflict. He said that at the last meeting
there was a general concern that the people located in the lodges
on the West End and Waters Street would be going through the Gant
in an unchannelized, random fashion. He said the thought is to
develop a trail network that would channelize the flow of pedestrian
traffic. They would identify one key route that would get people
to the trail system on Ute Avenue and get ultimately up to Little
Annie's. He said that what they have to propose now is a trail
that would go through Glory Hole Park. There is also a pedestrian
easement on the back property line, on the back of the Clarendon
parcel. So, there is legal access between West End Street and
Glory Hole Park.
He said some design modifications are in order to minirnumize the
impact on both the Gant property and the Clarendon property. The
thought is to try to berm up with railroad ties and implantings
to create a sort of grade separation for the pedestrians who flow
through. There is a plan for a serpentine plan and a lot of land-
scaping materials to create a physical and visual separation for
the pedestrians.
Kane said that the legal status of this trail came into question at
the last meeting. He said originally West End Street was a plated
public right-of-way that came straight through Ute Avenue and when
Clarendon was subdivided, there was an agreement and a reservation
set aside for a 40 foot right-of-way for the construction of West
End Street. As it stands right now, the plat calls it a reservation
so the land is identified as separate parcels, and that land is
reSeTVed until a point in time when the City of Aspen will require
the dedication of the land for public access. Therefore, the land
is essentially held in trust until the City of Aspen dedicates it.
Lee Pardee asked how far the trail would be from the point where
people would be dropped off the their destination. Kane said it
was approximately 2,000 feet.
Jasmine Tygre said that she seemed to remember from the original
plan that the idea was to stop vehicular access at the corner of
Durant and Original. She was told that is still correct, that is
for private vehicular access. This would mean there would be no
private vehicular access from that point toward Ute Avenue. Tygre
asked what about the people who want to go east on Ute Ave. and
turn up West End? Joe Wells said that is why they are arguing
that the permit program is an essential part of any approvals
because obviously there is going to be a tendency to do that and
people will want to park on those streets.
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RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
100 Leaves
FORM '.~ C. F. HOECK," B. 9. II l. Cl.
SPECIAL MEETING
ASPEN PlANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION
JANUARY 13, 1981
Roger Hunt said that people like to take the shortest line between
two points. What would happen when people tend to head straight
towards the Little Annie's terminal? What method of control will
there be for that? One of the consultants said the Gant has
requested a security buffer so they could just extend that to go
totally around the area and make it extremely difficult to cut
through.
Lee Pardee suggested they continue talking about this after #7,
skier IIDving, because one of his concerns is people in ski boots
walking a half a mile.
Gideon Kaufinan, representative of Peter and Judith Hoyt, who own
property in Calderwood Subdivision on Waters Ave. He said the
point has been mentioned, but it is a very large concern of people
who own property in that area, as far as pedestrian access. He
thinks it is corrmendable they work something out as far as pedestrians
with the Gant, but he also thinks there is still a very large
unresolved area ;as to how they are going to mitigate the impact
of pedestrians walking through Calderwood off of Water Ave., both
people getting to the Little Annie area and employees walking through
trying to get to town. He said it is already a problem without the
ski area even being there.
Olof suggested the commission move on to the next concern.
was Size of Base Building. The commission agreed that this
had already been covered.
No.4
point
No. 5 was Zoning for Employee Housing. Bill Kane said they had done
some research on the various options available. At the last meeting,
he said there was a desire on the part of P & Z to look at a mixture
of alternatives. The original concept was for 67 units of free
standing apartments. There were some questions raised about the
possiblity of doing some dormitory style housing or doing a mix
of free standing apartments and dormitory style housing. Kane
said they have looked at what would be permitted in the R-6 zone and
then looked at what changes might necessitate another rezoning.
Kane said that, on the property, 131,000 sq. ft. of land would be
elegible for density calculation purposes, that is, after slope
reduction. With employee housing bonus and overlay, one unit of
3375 sq. ft. would be permitted, allowing a total of 38 units.
Conceivably within the 38 units, there could be some dormitory units
with multiple bedrooms, and still, within R-6, define those as units.
The problem with that concept is that dormitory housing is not
permitted within the R-6 district. Kane said they are looking to
the P & Z for some direction.
Kane said the thought here would be to stay within the same bedroom
count. He suggested for a starting part in the discussion, a mix
of four dormitory buildings, which would allow nine rooms per unit
and eighteen pillows, which would provide 36 rooms and 72 pillows.
Then, there would be sixteen clustered townhouses at 16 bedroom
units each and eight two-bedroom units. However, dormitory units
would require some redefinition of R-6 and if that didn't work there
would have to be a rezoning.
Ron Garfield wanted to add that if Little Annie's did go the dorm
route, units that would be eliminated would be those closest to the
Calderwood subdivision and to the Gant, so that would reduce some
of the problems of the people in the area.
Lee Pardee asked how many units and pillows were in the original
plans. He was told 67 units and 106 bedrooms. In the new concept,
there would be 104 pillows.
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RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
100 Leaves
FORM!O C.F.HO!CKELB.O.&l.CO.
SPECIAL MEETING
ASPEN PlANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION
JANUARY 13, 1981
Joe Wells said that in the original concept, they can't tell the
commission exactly how many employees would be housed, but the
commission should conclude how many employees they would like to
see housed in the area, and send the consulants off to come up with
a site plan to house that many.
A consultant to the plan said that with four dorms and eighteen
separate rooms would end up with 72 dorm rooms.
Lee Pardee asked why they were calling them dormitories. He said
he looked at the plans and he didn't see anything that looked like
dormitories. Joe said it can't be defined as a dwelling units
because it houses IIDre than six unrelated individuals.
Finishing up what he had to say, the consultant said there would be
72 separate rooms, sixteen one-bedroom units would be 16 separate
rooms, and then 8 two-bedroom units would be sixteen separate rooms.
Therefore, the total would be 104 separate rooms, the original
proposal having 106 separate rooms. He said it is pure speculation
as to how many people would occupy each room. He said the net
number of people occupying the area would probably be less with the
dormitory because the rooms are very small and it probably would
not work to have two people in each room. However, with 106
apartment rooms, there would be IIDre people because there are good
chances that each room would be larger.
Ted Mularz went to the charts and explained about the dormitories.
He said they are within the 25 foot heigth limitation. It is a
building with a COIIUIl::m entry, storage and a COJJllllOn kitchen that has
two of everything and a little living area with a t.v. and a dining
room. This was a proposal how they might utilize the space for
maximum effeciency. Each bed would have storage areas all around it
wmcfi would make it very comfortable for whoever was there. On
the outside they would try to keep it as simple and basic as they
can because of cost.
Lee Pardee said that the floor plan does not give nearly enough
COJJllllOn area. No one would want to spend too much time in their
rooms because they are so small. Ted said they were going under
the assumption that all eighteen people will not be eating at
the same time. Lee said that if they are all going to be working
for Farney, they will be eating at the same time. Pardee suggested
taking out one bunk room and giving the tenants IIDre common space.
He said he likes the idea of this kind of living and it is certainly
what tfiey need. Ted said they could add twelve feet to the building
and each person could have his/her own room, and it would also add
another twelve feet to the COJJllllOn areas.
Jasmine asked if there was any thought given to having the dormitory
style housing with no IIDre than six people so there would not have
to De a zoning change? Joe Wells said that would not be possible
since there could only be 38 units and they could not accommodate
the number of people they would want to. Jasmine asked if the
commission ever came to a determination as to how many people they
would want to accorrmodate?
Olof said there was one very substanstial improvement acheived by
this approach. It reduces the impact in heigth, ground coverage
and closeness to adjacent properties.
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RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
100 Leaves
FORM 'I C.F.HOECKfLB.B.a.l.CJ.
Olof questioned at this point whether they want to get too deeply
into room size and accorrunodations.
Lee Pardee said the commission should give as much imput into Little
Annie's as possible.
Roger Hunt said he thought this plan with the mix of dormitories
and free standing apartments is definately better than the original
plan. He is not against improvement of the COmIIDn elements of the
dormitory style housing.
Joan Klar agreed with Roger but she had a small corrnnent about the
bunk rooms. She thought they were an okay size for two if they
were not built exactly to the configurations shown. However, she
did say the idea of the mix was totally necessary and totally
appropriate to what they were trying to do. She also didn't think
they needed much of a common area.
Olof summarized what the commission had said. He said some had
expressed a need for a larger COmIIDn area, perhaps a different
arrangement on the bedroom. He said that at this point, that is
as far as they really need to go.
Ron Garfield said they did need to walk away from this meeting with
a real good understanding of what the commission would want from
Little Annie's on employee housing because of the commitment it
requires on planning and designing and also because they may have
to initiate a code amendment.
Olof said the consultants most certainly have gotten the impression
from the commission that they definately like the new concept. It
is a big improvement in land use, impact and serving the employees.
He said there is some feeling that the addition of 12 feet to the
Building for the comm:::m area would be advantageous.
Roger said that sort of means they would have to get the mechanism
necessary so they can do it. Olof said the next question is the
mechanism to accomplish it and the suggestion from Bill Kane was
to initiate a conditional use in the R-6 zone for dormitory style
housing.
Al Blomquist said they have to get away from the dormitory definition.
It must be defined somehow as a group house or something. And,
when they do it, they must look at all the residential zones and not
just single Qut R~6. Joan Klar disagreed and said she thought they
should single it out. To keep the code clear, if it has been called
dormitory housing to this point, call it exactly that.
Joe Wells clarified that point by saying that in other words the use
is allowed under the REO in basically all of the zone districts
including RMF but is not allowed in the R-6, R-15 and R-30.
Blomquist said he supposed that what makes these buildings dormitories
:i::s that there is not a bathroom in each room. Wells said it is the
unrelated persons living in the building. Olof suggested the commissiol
leave the definitions and construction of revision to the Planning
Office but could the commission agree in general terms as to the
approach they want to take to make possible this type of employee
housing for Little Annie's.
Roger wondered if there was a mechanism of doing this under the
residential bonus overlay for projects exceeding a certain number.
Wells said they had no legal council at the meeting to clarify that.
Olof said there seemed to be a consensus that it should be by special
review as a conditional use.
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RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
100 Leaves
rOIl~" C. F. HOECKcl B. B. &: l. CJ.
SPECIAL MEETING
ASPEN PlANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION
JANUARY 13, 1981
Olof said they need to initiate a code amendment to be prepared by
the Planning Office and the City Attorney. Wells asked the commission
to make a motion to that effect.
Blomquist made a motion for the staff to prepare an amendment to the
zoning ordinance defining in a consistent sequence, group house,
dormitory, single family, duplex, multi-family, lodge, short-term
and long-term in a coherent amendment, distinguishing between the
type of building and the type of use or occupancy so that the code
is consistent throughout with recommendations as to which will be
as use by right and which will be a use by condition.
Roger Hunt seconded the IIDtion. Lee Pardee thought the motion was
far to broad and it will take six IIDnths to get done. This would
be a very large code amendment affecting every area of the code. He
agrees it should be done but he thinks there should be no IIDtion at
this time. Pardee thought the City Attorney and the Planning Office
should come back to the commission with a recommendation as to the
vehicle and then they can get on with it.
Blomquist said there can be no definition as to what it is they're
talking about without knowing how it's different without knowing
how its different from the other things that are defined. He
said the cornmssion could go ahead and do it for just R-6 and for
just this case, but before the commission does it they should know
the implications to the rest of the definitions in that code.
Olof wanted the advice of the Planning Office as to how to do this.
What about Al' s amendment for all of these definitions? Will that
impede? Wells said that historically, it has, but he wasn't sure
if it would in this case. In other words, the IIDre definitions that
have to be drafted very carefully, the more difficult the task.
Olof asked if there was in existence a definition that will serve
the purpose the commission is after this evening? Wells said he
believed they did by virtue of the way dwelling unit is defined so
that once IIDre than six unrelated persons are living in a unit, it
is no longer a dwelling unit, it becomes something else.
Olof agreed with Al' s point that they should redefine the definidons
of dwelling units but if its going to delay what they were trying
to accomplish at this meeting, he was not in favor of proceeding in
that way. He would like to see the commission initiate a code
amendment sufficent to allow Little Annie group housing by special
rev;i:ew as a conditional use. Al said he did not agree to that and
he thought it would simply be a days work for someone. Pardee said
they didn't even have a City Attorney and Olof said with the change-
over in personnel in the Planning Office, they definately could not
do it in such a short time.
Roger Hunt withdrew his second. He re-moved along those lines but
instead of redefining each item he would IIDve that all group housing
and dormitory be the one group they consider when it comes this
rezoning. Therefore, he moved to sponser a zoning amendment to
consider all units in excess of a dwelling unit, in other words
group house, boarding house, dormitory, for consideration as a
conditional use in the R-6, ROO overlay zone. Wells thought that
would be sufficient.
AI Blomquist seconded the motion.
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RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
100 Leaves
FOJlM'O C.F.HOECKELB.B.&l.CJ.
SPECIAL MEETING
ASPEN PlANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION
JANUARY 13, 1981
Ted Mularz asked if they should not somewhere, in the motion, include
the fact they may want to have another facility such as a laundry
building that may have a meeting room or party room in it that would
help in taking some of the people out of the common areas. It would
not really fall in the category of housing. Olof said they were
talking only about the housing portion of the area and they would
not include that in the IIDtion.
All in favor of the motion, none opposed. Motion carried.
Before leaving the subject of employee housing, Gideon Kaufman wanted
to make a cOITment. He said the location of the employee housing is
very important to the people in the Caulderwood subdivision and
while they are certainly in favor of flexibility, he would ask that
the Little Annie's consultants look at the possibility of decreasing
the size of the building closest to the subdivision and possibly
remove some of the parking and putting it somewhere else. He would
like to minimize the impact of some of the owners in the subdivision
having to look at all of the large buildings and all of the paved
area. He also said that since he has seen the P & Z sponser conditional
changes and then change their mind as in the C-l district, he would
ask that in the event that does happen, if this amendment is not
passed to allow them the flexibilty, he would like to see if its
possible to IIDve one building over behind the employee parking. This
would accomplish two things: 1) It would change some impact and
2) It might change the impact of employee parking.
Wells said he didn't think it had been resolved whether or not some
of the buildings were sited within one hundred feet of the river and
if it was an issue to the board. Blomquist said he felt strong
about staying away from the river. Ted Mularz said that if they
were on flat land, it would make a considerable difference but the
bank is so steep and the buildings are so high above the river that
the closeness is not nearly as significant as if it were reasonably
level and flat. Olof said they have the Stream Margin Review for
that purpose.
Olof said they were approaching their goal of adjourning by 7: 00 PM.
He suggested they look through the remaining items and see which
ones were of IIDst importance.
On item #6, Differnces in Population Projections Used to Construe
Demand for Additional Skiing, Joe Wells made a report. He said
that Brian Stafford has generated a couple of memos in regard to
disagreements in population projections. He thought Brian's points
were valid points, however, he believed they go after the issue not
of whether ski expansion is needed but rather the level of expansion
anticipated as being needed in the WRT reports is necessary. He said
the suggestion still seems to be that expansion at this end of the
corridor is appropriate from a numbers standpoint but that perhaps
Burnt Mountain or expansion at the other end of the corridor is
perhaps not needed within the time frame given by the WRT report.
Whether or not that resolves the question, he doesn't think so.
However, he has yet to see anyone challenge the numbers in regards
to the need for additional capacity at this end of the corridor.
Olof said he thought that satifies the commission and he didn't want
to get into a discussion on that tonight.
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RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
100 Leaves
FORM" C.F.HOECKElB.B.&l.C.l.
SPECIAL MEETING
ASPEN PlANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION
JANUARY 13, 1981
Al Blomquist asked Ray if Little Annie were operating today, how
many could they accorrm::Jdate. Would the quality of snow be better?
Ray said there would be about four feet of snow on the area and
the portion that would face the Roaring Fork Valley area would be
equivalent to the size of Snowmass' total development.
Getting on the #7, which was Travel Impact, Transportation Mode
and Parking.
Bill Kane said he wanted to sUJl1IlBI'ize why they got to where they are.
He said there was a great interest on the part of the corporation
to try to develop a transportation system that would integrate as
painlessly as possible with the overall valley transit, particulary
in the way that has been accomplished with the Ski Corp in providing
integrated transportation system to Snowmass and Buttermilk. Some
of the reasons cited for that are to, as in a few years ago, there
were several different colored buses for the skiing corporations and
the city and it was hard at Ruby Park to try to decide which one
of those buses to get on to get to the destination.
He said the Bluebirds do have some drawbacks. They are deisal and
they are buses. He believed they are better looking than transit
buses but they do carry that stigma. Kane said that in the course
of reviewing transportation alternatives, Dave Farney made a personal
visit to Copper Mountain to look at a very unique kkier IIDver
system that was designed by Free Hop Corporation. It is an articulated
two car system that can carry a hundred skiers at a time. Th3
c=s have huge accordion doors on the side , with the concept that
the skier can get on board with his poles and skies and sit down
on a bench. This would offer savings on loading time and the
actual time the buses are sitting there idling. They are pulled
by a typical diesal tractor-type vehicle.
Therefore, the interest in the Bluebirds was simply integration and
economy. From the corporations' point of view, it is extremely
expensive to own and operate a transportation system.
Kane said there was a willingness to look at some other systems and
to hear what is on the commission's minds. He asked Duane Fengel
to say a few words on the transportation system.
Duane apologized to Little Annie's because he really didn't become
too concerned with it. He said he received their study last summer
and talked with Bill Kane and tried to give Bill a proposal for
a bus system. He said that as far as the Little Annie's situation
is concerned pertaining to transportation, he thought they did a
very comprehensive job on the layout, access and the problems of
loading passengers with skis and equipment. He said they gave
the City adequate space if they were running the system for them.
Their scheduling was good and they also emphasized the fact they
wanted to utilize the Rio Grande parking lot which is supposedly
where the transportation building is going to be of the City and
County. Duane said this is something that has to be worked out
between the City and County and the UMPTA people. He hopes to have
this accomplished wi thin the next two years.
Fengel said the impact on Ute Avenue will be tremendous. However,
these noisy and large buses will not be utilized all day long. The
basic time of use will be from 8:30 - 10:30 in the morning and 3:30 -
4: 30 in the afternoon. At the time of completion of the area, there
will be a UMPTA facility at the airport. This will be where the
buses are stored during the day, what Fengel calls dead time. They
will be IIDved from Ruby Park during this time and they won't be
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RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
100 Leaves
F()~M ~I c. r. HO~CKH B. a. II L, CJ.
SPECIAL MEETING
ASPEN PlANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION
JANUARY 13, 1981
sitting around town. They will be out of site and back on the road
on demand.. He believes that is one of the things that people are
used to seeing now and he believes that people on Ute Avenue probably
have that in mind. They don't want to hear the constant rattle of
the buses going up and down the road but it won't be as bad as they
think. Other than that, he feels Little Annie's put together a
pretty good system and he hopes also to someday put together better
and finer equipment and they are applying for that through UMPI'A
also.
Dave Farney said they also have the option of the trolley system.
However, Little Annie will follow the direction that P & Z, the
City Council and the people of Aspen ask for. They are not trying
to say that they want one system over another.
Olof asked for committee corrnnents.
Lee Pardee asked Dave's reaction to the Copper Mountain people IIDvers.
Farney said it is not a fast moving vehicle, going along at a maximum
of 20 MPH but it is very easy for people to hold their skis and get
on and off. It carries 120 people. He said it is difficult for
him to say that he would like to use anyone type of conveyance
because he would very much like to have the City integrate this within
their program.
Pardee said he is concerned about the ease of getting to Little Annie
and going on the assumption that most people will get on at Ruby Park,
it is probably not IIDre than a five minute ride, even at 20 MPH.
He thinks that on the Bluebirds , it would take four times as long
to load the skis and people on than it would take to get to the
destination. Bluebirds would only carry 50 people and this vehicle
Farney talks about would carry twice as many. He really likes the
idea of these people movers, sight unseen.
Joan Klar totally agreed also. She thinks this would be a nice
alternative in terms of impact on the city.
Al Blomquist thought it could be integrated in to the city transportatiol
by going to Aspen Institute and going through the lodge areas and
then back to Little Annie's. It could have a summer use by going to
the Music Festival.
Jasmine Tygre believed that every effort should be given to exploring
the alternative transportation approaches for a number of reasons.
Mostly, because having a lot of buses rambling up and down Ute
Avenue is not aesthetically pleasing and because they are trying to
discourage any kind of automobile use and pedestrian access to the
extent that the people IIDving vehicles are attractive and desirable
to use.
Roger Hunt said that any vehicle as wide as a bus would require the
widening of Ute Avenue to about double the existing pavement as it
now sits. Also, the peak bus transits are once ever 62.07 seconds
which by itself is unacceptable noise and odor to a primarily residentia]
area. He said there is just no avoidance of that. He thinks that
most of the residences on the south side of Ute Avenue basically
unlivable because the setbacks are not very great from the road already
and if the road is doubled there will probably not be any setbacks on
those residences. He said that if he was the only one who would be
making a recommendation to the City Council, he would say that the
whole proposal would have to fail just because of the impossible
impact on Ute Ave. in the residential neighborhood.
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Olof said he would like to sum up for the Little Annie people the
corrnnents of the P & Z and interject his own. He believes that it
is clear that the commission thinks that the use of Bluebird buses
and an integrated system with the city bus system is totally
unacceptable. The impact and the undesirable aspects of these buses
are enoUX'lIDUs. He believed that the positive conclusions are 1) a
vehicle must be as quiet and odorless as possible 2) the number of
trips required to IIDve the skiers in and out must be reduced to an
absolute minimum 3) the loading time must be at a minimum, not only
in time and convience, but in attractiveness to the skier 4) the
resulting stacking of vehicles must be reduced to a minimum 5) the
right-of-way improvements to Ute Avenue should be kept to a minimum
and, finally 6) the system and equipment incorporated should be
capable of integration into the City system for use both for the
ski area and for other uses during the summer.
Parking was also included on item #7. Bill Kane said there was a
letter included in the packet from Steve Lockwood who took some
exceptions to what was stated in the TDP report which in turn was
included in WRT's report. Significant differences exist over the
call for the parking facility at the Rio Grande property. To
summarize Lockwood 1 S comments, Kane said he points out that the ll9
spaces were calculated by assuming 2500 skiers were on the lIDuntain.
In short, Steve disagrees that there is an instaneaous demand for
119 spaces, he believes it would be IIDre like 50 or 60. His point
was also that there is nothing in the design of Little Annie which
was geared toward attracting downvalley skiers. The realities are
that Little Annie will be replicating a lot of the skiing that is
at Snowmass and therefore, his theory is that people will probably
not past Snowmass to go down to Little Annie and even if they did
they would probably go on the weekend when utilization of the parking
lot that already exists at Rio Grande is not being used.
Lee Pardee said those 119 parking spaces may not be used in the
beginning, but he would like to know where they are going to be when
they are needed, even if it wouldn't be for five years. He wants
them dedicated and platted.
Kane said what they are arguing is that there are already 100 spaces
down there. The commission agreed they are pretty full during the
week but Kane said that is not when they would be utilized as much
by Little Annie's. The downvalley people are workers and they
would ski only during the weekend, when the lot is not full.
Olof said the commission agreed that the City is going to be faced
with some additional concerns for parking. Hunt said maybe that
could be handled under a contractual basis with the City where the
Little Annie's Corporation would participate in the helping of the
development of that parking.
Gideon Kaufman said he has an issue with parking that is slightly
different. He wanted to know about the impact on the surrounding
neighborhood. He said the way it is proposed right now, there
would be a guard placed on the entrance to Ute Avenue. He feels
that it would be important on Waters Avenue to have both the guard
from 7:00 in the morning to 7:00 at night, as well as a permit
system because the proximity of Waters Ave. to the area will cause
a tremendous parking problem. He said there are two types of
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of parking problems: there will be the daytime parking, when people
will want to come in and ski the area, and the evening time, when the
employees who live there, might want to park in that particular
area. He would like to see some type of restrictions placed on
Waters Ave. for the parking during the day and night and parking
permits for the people who live there. Also, he would like to
see some sort of berming or visual blocking from the Calderwood
subdivision of the tremendous parking lot that borders the employee
area.
Al made a motion that all on street parking within a quarter of a
mile from Little Annie base be limited to two hours. There was
no second to the IIDtion.
Jasmine didn't think there could be two hour parking in a residential
area without parking permits for the residents. Lee thinks it is
sufficient to say that a permit system should be evaluated but the
commission should not be writing it. He also is not 100% convinced
that the parking problem is totally the city's. He thinks a great
portion of the problem is the city's but Little Annie's should take
on a portion of the problem also. A consultant said Little Annie
would be willing to contribute to helping with the problem.
Olof suggested they take a quick look at item #8, Street Improvements
to Ute Ave. because Jay HamJIDnd sat through the whole meeting.
Jay said he would basically like to repeat that they are working
with Jim Reeser on the Ute Ave. question and Little Annie's has
been very cooperative so far. He said that in their original
proposal they suggested improvements to Ute Ave. from the location
of the facility up to the intersection with Original St. and
suggested a cooperative financial approach to that. Engineering
feels that the impacts and the conditons of the street out there
warrant improvements of Original St. from Ute to Durant, which
has no curb and gutter and poor pavement at this time. He said
that Little Annie pretty much agr'ee with that. Harrim3nd said
they also felt that the pavement width out there should be widened
from roughly 30 feet in their original proposal to around 40 feet,
which would give them the flexibility to create either two bus
lanes and a parking lane or simply close the parking and create two
wider lanes. Right now, the streets vary between 25 feet to 35 feet.
Olof asked about Roger's concern that you can't get 40 feet out of
Ute without really going up to people's front doors. Jay said
the majority of the right-of-way runs to around 60 feet. He said
that is part of what they're doing right now, is putting together
adequate right-of-way inforrration to know what they have to work
with.
Olof adjourned the meeting at 7: 30 PM.
Rob~<~~A:? .8L1Aj_