ISSUE #251: ANT ALERT - Give Lumberyard Feedback Today! (6/12/23)

"The Lumberyard is just another of the many fingers in the dike trying to restrain the forces of gentrification flooding our community."

-- Mick Ireland

Tomorrow at 3p, city council will be voting to lock in development plans for The Lumberyard. This is reckless and absurd. There are far too many unanswered questions and the community is being kept in the dark. 

It is ESSENTIAL that you click HERE and write a note - however brief - expressing your vehement disapproval. (Very little public comment has been received thus far, so council continually refers to "feedback" they received when they originally asked housing seekers "what do you want at The Lumberyard?" This is hardly what we want guiding such a monumental decision!)

You do not have to be an Aspen voter to voice your opposition!

SPEAK NOW! 

A "no" vote will not stop the project, but it will pause it so the community can see:

A) The budget

B) The financing plans

C) The traffic plans

D) The specifics on who will eventually reside there

E) A study on the impacts to our schools, hospital and other vital infrastructure

F) Impacts on the community in terms of real growth.

Today, we have ZERO information on these issues.

The Lumberyard plans are not ready to be memorialized, but city hall is rushing to get things underway. Once underway, they'll say it's too late to change anything. This is their modus operandi.

A couple important tidbits:

• The Lumberyard stands to be the largest municipal project in Aspen's history.
• It has no funding source nor budget.
• Nearly $30 million has already been spent on the land. 
• Over $4.3 million has already been spent on design, but only as far as the "schematic" phase. Much more design work is still to come.
• City staff has told council there are "9 financing models" yet none have been publicly shared. (My guess is they don't exist.)
• City staff continually tells council that the city has "significant" funding options for the project yet won't reveal them. (Could they be referring to the drastically shrinking RETT revenues?)
• While P&Z has technically approved The Lumberyard, they stated grave concerns over Hwy 82 traffic impacts, infrastructure at the ABC and a new stoplight/intersection - topics that were outside the scope of their review yet big enough to be raised. The city has ignored their feedback.
• Estimates have units costing $1.5 million per to build while the Roaring Fork School District is building housing for teachers for $573K/unit. Maybe we ought to at least look at what they're doing?
• The cheap-looking design is massive. The 4-story buildings are 64' in height. You do the math.
• Despite the likelihood of becoming an all-rental complex, LY units have been designed larger than required by APCHA, with walk-in closets, in-unit laundry, mudrooms, storage closets and balconies or porches. Is this efficient? Necessary? Or just plain stupid?
• The city is both judge and jury in this application - they are pushing for council's approval of their own development plans. If an outside developer proposed this nonsense they'd be laughed out of the room.
• Many more "contracts" are in the immediate pipeline awaiting approval. If plans are approved on Tuesday, the spending will begin in earnest - with no funding source.

Don't take my word for it. BY FAR THE BEST RESOURCE for facts and info on The Lumberyard has been provided by my friends at 

Aspen Deserves Better, a non-political platform dedicated to fostering community engagement and conversation. HERE is their newsletter from last night on this critical issue.

I also encourage you to subscribe. I wholeheartedly agree: Better engagement and processes can only lead to better governance.

I implore you. Please take 3 minutes NOW and write a brief note to council expressing how The Lumberyard is "not ready" for approval, in your own words. Weigh in and be counted. Your opinion does matter. Thank you!!