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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.19880427Continued Meeting Aspen Citv Council April 27_,.._1988 Mayor Stirling called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. with Councilmembers Isaac, Tuite, and Gassman present. ASPEN MOUNTAIN LODGE PUD Mayor Stirling summarized the applicants have proposed to move 30 rooms to the Blue Spruce site, around 16,700 square feet, and to remove the 5 residential units from the upper southeast corner of the hotel and roll them into phase II, about 13,000 square feet. Mayor Stirling said the phase I site is about 2.96 acres, including the Blue Spruce and 292 units. Mayor Stirling said this will have the effect of creating 3 buildings. John Sarpa, representing the applicant, told Council they have been able to produce a crude massing model. The senior archi- tects are present to go over the drawings from last week. Ken Richardson, head of architecture design for Ritz is also present. Sarpa said the applicants feel the change to the design addresses the focus on scale and mass. Sarpa said the applicants feel this is a timeless design and will be made out of brick. Sarpa told Council the applicants and the town are at a critical point. This project is on the verge of coming out of the ground. The financing is in place, they have a top notch operator. Gene Aubry, architect, showed the ground floor plan of the building. Aubry showed the 3 buildings which will house 162, 100 and 30 rooms. Aubry explained by moving 30 rooms to the Blue Spruce site there will be a distance of 86 feet between two bodies of the building. There is an apres ski lounge, a court- yard which is completely transparent to Mill street. Aubry showed the connections between the buildings and the proposed accessory retail. Aubry showed the second level overhead bridge connection which ties directly into the guest rooms. The guest rooms begin at the second level. Aubry said there is a wonderful entrance at Dean street. Aubry said these changes have drasti- cally reduced the mass of the building. Aubry showed elevations from Durant and Mill street and the heights of the different buildings. Aubry showed the previous submittal from the work with P & Z. Tn~hen the 30 rooms are moved, that height drops down to one story. Aubry said the building will still be 42 feet to the mid-point of the roof . Aubry told Council they have prepared a mass model. The proposed hotel on the model has a slight variation of 8 feet and 30 f eet on the back. Aubry said the model shows comparisons of different buildings in the city and how the project relates. Council and the applicants moved to the model. The model gives an idea of building mass, of open space compared to other projects. Sarpa said the conference facilities are 20,000 square 1 Continued Meeting Aspen City Council Aril 27, 1988 feet and are all underground. Mayor Stirling asked if the building could be moved back up the hill. Mayor Stirling said some of the comments about Ritz other hotels are that they are surrounded by open space and landscaping. Harvey said the building is set back 28 feet on Mill street and 18 feet off Monarch street. Sarpa said P & Z recommended moving the building off Monarch street and showed where they moved the building back. Ken Richardson said they do not want to guest rooms on the lower level because of the service area on one side. Richardson said there will be some accessory retail of a logo shop and a Harrod's boutique. Sarpa said the shading has been reduced because of this design change. Richardson said that 292 rooms is their lowest count. They have done a lot of research and feel that is the number of rooms necessary to support this market and to get this hotel to work. Sarpa told Council they have to have the 292 rooms on phase I and cannot get much more inventive with the design. Sarpa said o n phase II there is more flexibility and they can go down to 100 room total. This will have a total for the two phases of 397, eliminating 50 rooms. Harvey said the applicants have not looked at a land plan for this but dropping this number of rooms will give more flexibility. Sarpa told Council there are 160 units on the Continental Inn site that can be torn down and replaced. Sarpa said the number of units they have to have is 390. Sarpa said any lower than that, Ritz, the guarantee and the financing will disappear. Councilman Gassman said he feels the Continental Inn site is a better site for development. Sarpa said the premise of the proposed hotel is that the community needs and wants a facility to attract business in the shoulder season to help offset the economic peculiarities of a snow resort. Sarpa said if rooms are eliminated from the proposed hotel, it will lose the ability to attract the national group business. Mayor Stirling said he had hoped for a chance to develop a balance between the two sites and the two buildings. Mayor Stirling said he would like to see more of the density moved to the east wing site than just 5 residen- tial units. Mayor Stirling said the proposed hotel will loom behind everything in the town. Mayor Stirling said he does not feel the town's decisions should be driven by a hotel operator. Mayor Stirling questioned whether the town wants the kind of change this will bring to the downtown area. Mayor Stirling said this change is being driven by a guarantee to the appli- cant. Mayor Stirling suggested the model be placed somewhere so that all can view it that are interested. Mayor Stirling said the statements that are made in this town are made by the mountains and the significant old Victorian build- ings. Mayor Stirling said he still has trouble with the massing 2 Continued Meeting Aspen City Council Aril 27, 1988 of the buildings and would like to move some of the rooms into phase II, which has more ability to handle the density. Mayor Stirling said the applicant has stated it is 292 unit s or the Ritz will not be the operator. Sarpa said the applicants feel it will be a mistake for the developer and for the town to put a hotel there will not accomplish what it is supposed to accom- plish. Sarpa said the applicant is deferring to operators record of being able to put up a successful hotel and to read the community. Mayor Stirling said there have been new rooms built and the occupancy in the winter averages 50 to 60 percent. Mayor Stirling said there have been new rooms built and renewed rooms since the Council first saw this project. Mayor Stirling said this project will exacerbate the problems the community has. Mayor Stirling said he is not at the point of giving this project approval. Sarpa said there has been a net loss of short term rooms in the city. Sarpa said the additional commercial space requires more economic support of having extra beds. Sarpa said there will millions of dollars of community improvements from this project; there are also millions of dollars that will flow into the public treasury. Sarpa if they get the flexibility in this project, they can spend time, money and effort in working with the community to address problems, like employee housing. Richie Cohen said one thing that has not changed since this first approval is the awareness of the need to develop the shoulder season and get a more even f low of business. Cohen pointed out that Aspen is becoming much more of a stable community. Mayor Stirling moved 1988, at 5:00 p.m.; motion carried. to continue the meeting to Thursday, May 5, seconded by Councilman Isaac. All in f avor, Kathryn Koch, City Clerk 3