ISSUE #168: A Housing Lifeline to Build Goodwill and Boost Inventory 6/7/20

"It's easy to underestimate the real cost of home ownership."

   - Suze Orman

The Red Ant has long focused on our subsidized housing program and questioned the policy of selling units versus renting them. While I acknowledge the pride associated with home ownership, I regularly question the wisdom of selling housing that requires regular, ongoing and preventative maintenance in a city where such services come at exorbitant free market prices. The discrepancy between artificially low home prices and the high-end resort costs of maintaining them more often than not results in deferred or ignored maintenance. This, combined with the unwillingness to require sufficient reserves at each of the HOAs has resulted in widespread negligence and looming problems. But the housing, when it comes available, still flies off the market due to demand.

The recent chaos likely has many subsidized homeowners questioning their investment. Instead of the option of breaking a lease and walking away, mortgage holders are clearly held to a different level of commitment. This is an idea I've been thinking about for a while. I think it checks a lot of boxes.

Read my column in today's Aspen Times HERE

ISSUE #166: Box It In: Good luck with that (5/10/20)

"The science increasingly shows that the measures we have taken in the last few weeks have been both harmful - with freedoms lost, money spent, livelihoods destroyed - and pointless."

   - R. R. Reno

Aspen has mandated the wearing of face masks in public, which if this is what it takes to open local businesses, fine by me. Look for these to become the norm for the foreseeable future.  

I have closely followed the Pitkin County Board of Health and its Public Health Orders throughout the pandemic. The latest COVID-19 response is called "Box It In" and is all wrong for Aspen. It's a political strategy, not a scientific one, which stands to quarantine large numbers of our populace regardless of whether or not they are sick. There is still a huge focus on keeping the virus out of Aspen.

Thankfully, the science shows a far less deadly situation than we had originally feared. Individuals need to take personal responsibility and make their own risk assessments. Our lifeblood is tourism, and getting back to business should be our number one priority. 

Read my column in today's Aspen Times HERE

* I'm attaching a letter HERE from respected restaurateur and community member Jimmy Yeager who wrote to the powers that be and his colleagues this past week. It's a sobering and heart-wrenching look at what our local restaurants are up against. 

* The Red Ant gives credit where credit is due. Many thanks to Mayor Torre and County Commissioners Greg Poschman and Patti Clapper for their convincing advocacy of local businesses, especially restaurants and lodges. Your strong support for earlier-than-anticipated openings stands to save businesses and livelihoods.

* Please continue to support our local businesses, now more than ever. 

ISSUE #167: Aspen's Taj - Our Fiscal Mausoleum 5/24/20

"The (federal) government's most useful role is not to rush into a program of excessive increases in public expenditures, but to expand the incentives and opportunities for private expenditures."

       - John F. Kennedy

While we struggle to open our doors and cling to hopes of regained livelihoods, the City of Aspen presses on with the ill-conceived Taj Mahal City Hall on Rio Grande Place.  Budgeted at $33 million, rumors persist that the great hole we have to show for it is, at the $10 million mark, already over-budget.  Professional developers estimate it will cost $50 million before we're through, never mind the office space was unneeded at the time of inception and is certainly unneeded today.

City council knows little of the specifics of the building - it's projected cost, it's projected completion date, it's programming - and cares even less. All decisions are deferred to staff who, of course, prefer offices in the shiny new digs. The city manager says and therefore council insists that we must build it. They're very, very wrong. And fiscally irresponsible. (The financing is tricky, but not insurmountable.) 

 

Read my column from Sunday's Aspen Times HERE

* HERE is a refresher on the Taj Mahal City Hall. (#151)

* Amid the current crisis, city council is far more interested in "relief" (giving money away) vs "recovery" (saving our economy). THIS letter to the editor perfectly illustrates it. 

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The recovery is on. Businesses in Aspen are grappling with re-opening amid prescribed restrictions and protocols that frighten even the most cautiously optimistic. The “new normal” is anything but, yet during the weeks of uncertainty that have brought us to this point, we have all learned to adapt, to modify our horizons, and out of necessity we’ve reduced our spending and are more cognizant than ever about staying on a budget. We’re all in this together. It’s a popular phrase, and we are. If nothing else, we’ve learned firsthand how interconnected our fates and fortunes are, and how simplistic-sounding edicts have the power to trickle down to become raging torrents of destruction.

But why is the City of Aspen behaving differently, as if the rules don’t apply? If we are indeed all in this together, why are they continuing to build, with our tax dollars, the ill-conceived, unsupervised, over-budget, unneeded monolith known locally as the Taj Mahal City Hall when everyone else is trimming their sails?  As it turns out, it’s because no one is in charge. The current council barely acknowledges the project, yet alone knows anything about its progress, budget or future programming. They simply deflect when asked, falsely proclaiming that all the decisions were made by their predecessors, despite two of the current members being part of said group, and as if that absolves any of them of current or future responsibility. Mayor Torre even ran on his support for “a review and changes to the final design and programming of the new city office building” because it does “not appear to address community goals,” only to capitulate to staff the moment he took office. Let us also not forget that this edifice to bureaucratic excess was designed to accommodate future office space needs, never mind we’ve recently learned vis-à-vis the pandemic that “office space” is now effectively dead. If the world wasn’t working differently ten weeks ago, it certainly is today.

Recall in 2018, local voters chose the Taj in its current location and a remodel of the Armory over a developer’s proposal for a fixed-price new building on Hopkins which also included the Armory remodel. Anti-developer sentiment coupled with city staff’s desire for shiny new digs heavily influenced the vote for the current project. Initially sold to voters as a city office building, the Taj soon became “the new city hall” and quickly grew to include an obtrusive third floor.

Fearful of likely voter rejection of general obligation bonds to finance the project, the city opted to use Certificates of Participation (COP) which, in addition to being more expensive, restrict the funds to this building specifically and require completion, regardless of cost, by a specified date. Today, $10 million in and already over-budget, there is only a big hole to show for it. Professional outside estimates put the 37,500 sf Taj at a minimum of $50 million to complete.  Since the COP only cover $30 million, the city will be on the hook to make up the difference, and that difference continues to grow daily with cost-overruns, change orders, and exorbitant consulting fees – the kinds of charges one incurs when no one is watching. And it leaves the Armory remodel entirely unfunded. At a time when City revenues are already down $25 million this year and will likely not recover for several more, this financial liability gets worse by the day.

The solution is not ideal, but because of the hasty and misguided decision to finance construction with COP, several steps are clear:

• Like the rest of us, the City must acknowledge and adapt to its new circumstances. A blank check for construction is typical, but times have changed.
• It’s time to renegotiate the terms of the COP. 
• The controversial 7,200 sf 3^rd floor must immediately come off. This will obviously reduce costs, not to mention preserve the irreplaceable view plane and access through Galena Plaza, vital for a town-to-riverfront connection.
• Council must step up now and demonstrate ownership, responsibility and accountability, and demand fiscal restraint. At the very minimum, we must stay on-budget with a downsized Taj.  Build what you can with what you’ve got, if you must, but nothing more.

As arrogant as it was to bypass the voters and finance the Taj with the more expensive and far more restrictive COP, not to mention the horrendous optics of building it today, it is nothing short of unconscionable for the city to move ahead with a superfluous and bloated vanity project at a time when people are losing their jobs, their homes and their livelihoods. 

ISSUE #165: Let's Get This Party Started! (4/26/20)

"You can't plan for everything or you never get started in the first place."

                                                    - Jim Butcher

 As the governor of Colorado takes baby steps to roll-back the lockdown and re-start the state's economy, local electeds are slow on the uptake. They relish control. Some believe their role is to "keep the virus out."  Plans and solutions are creeping along at a snail's pace, with an obsession over universal testing for the active virus and even a request of the city manager that we "get direction from the FAA" before we allow tourists to come back. Good grief. (That might be a long wait.) 

In the meantime, they have indeed borrowed money from the Wheeler Fund, but instead of providing no-interest loans, they're giving the money away: means-tested individual relief and commercial rent subsidies, thus far. (The general fund will have to pay the Wheeler Fund back, and those monies will likely come from cuts to services, given the expected drastic decline in tax revenue.)

I think there is MUCH more we can do opening-wise, within the realm of being safe.

Read my column in today's Aspen Times HERE

* Council has asked for feedback on expediting construction in order to facilitate economic recovery efforts as soon as possible.  This might include expedited processes for new building and right-of-way permits, expanded construction hours, phased construction, and extending construction beyond the usual deadline of June 15, among others. Please take a minute to fill out the short survey HERE before noon on Monday, April 27.  I hope you will join me in encouraging them to get construction moving! This summer is shaping up to be a snoozer, so why wouldn't we try to get a lot of construction done now as opposed to dragging it out for years?!  

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You know it’s been an eventful week in quarantine when you’ve listened in on several public meetings including the Pitkin County board of health, cleaned out your closets and celebrated with a road trip to Walmart.We have collectively done a bang-up job of staying home and protecting ourselves over the past six weeks, despite having no clue how many people here have been sick. As for leadership and decisions, many of our electeds simply defer to appointed bureaucrats and state leaders, while others proselytize on social media and advocate government bailouts.  FACT: Our stay-at-home order has not – I repeat not – been to eliminate the virus from our community.  It has been to slow the spread to levels that do not exceed the capacity of our local healthcare system.  And we have managed to avoid a tidal wave of cases that could have overwhelmed our limited resources. As a result, Aspen Valley Hospital has had time to create, enact and fine-tune its strategy to fight the virus and stock up on critical supplies. 

The virus exists, and it’s not going anywhere. FACT: While the rate of spread has slowed just like our economy, it will indeed ramp up when we leave our homes and welcome “outsiders” back to Aspen.  That’s the reality of the situation.  We cannot keep the virus out.

The goal moving forward is to acquire what’s called “herd immunity,” where so many people in a community become immune to an infectious disease that it stops the disease from spreading. FACT: There is only one way to acquire herd immunity today and that’s for people to obtain the antibodies as a result of having the virus.  At some point, there may be a vaccine, but for now it doesn’t exist.  Without immunity, one remains vulnerable to the virus.

I heard this from the board of health’s chief medical officer, the impressive Dr. Kim Levin, who is also a physician in our local ER.  Thank you, Dr. Levin, for your wisdom, your plain-speak and for clarifying what all the bureaucrats are afraid to say: while the gradual loosening of public health orders will certainly lead to more cases, this exactly what we must do.

As we tip-toe around which steps to take locally when the current public health order to stay at home expires on April 30, recent discussions ultimately yielded a reprieve for bike shops and office supply stores, golf courses, landscapers and construction sites, but not without intense debates about capping holes on the greens so people won’t have to reach in for their golf balls and stringent requirements for temperature-taking and hand-washing at construction sites.  At this rate, we might be open by Christmas.

The hot topic remains testing. The focus today is on whether you currently have the virus. But have you managed to get tested and been found to have the antibodies?  Lucky you.  The current assumption is that if you have the antibodies, you’re safe now and can carry on.  But if you don’t, then what?  It’s pretty straightforward. You are going to have to take personal responsibility and make some difficult choices.  On one hand, you know what’s worked to this point in time so you can continue to do that, but that doesn’t get you out of the house and back to work. On the other hand, knowing you’re vulnerable and going “out there” definitely presents a conundrum.  These are not decisions the government is going to make for you for much longer. The government cannot keep the virus out, nor can it keep everyone healthy.  Aspen the nanny state would love to monitor you, your health, temperature and whereabouts in real time, as well as those of our visitors, but this isn’t China. 

Next weekend, when the public health order expires, it’s time to lay out rational and actionable steps to get this resort tourism economy moving.  If it’s okay to shop at City Market, then it should be okay to shop at all retail stores in Aspen.  If we’re allowing construction workers past our pearly gates, then we shouldn’t quarantine second-homeowners. Our hospital is operating well below capacity so let’s start scheduling elective procedures.  As the weather improves, outdoor dining becomes increasingly viable for shuttered restaurants.  Dog grooming services are the first step toward personal ones. And as for lodges and hotels, many are closed as planned for off-season, but for those that wish to open, let them.  Again, how is any of this much different from shopping at Walmart?  

In short, elected officials, let’s look for ways to open up, not for reasons to stay closed.  

ISSUE #164: Hope, and a True Bailout for the 100-day Pin (4/12/20)

"Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear.  If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today."                                                 

  - Thich Nhat Hanh

The celebratory season of Easter comes amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but hope is not lost.  Traditions are important and integral aspects of our small community, and because these long-standing customs have been passed down to us and cherished, they will live on, even with a "gap year" this cycle.

Read my column in today's Aspen Times HERE

* The newspaper business needs your help.  While local businesses have been temporarily closed, they are not buying advertising - the lifeblood of a newspaper. If you value our daily local news coverage as I do, please consider making a donation to the cause HERE.

* Please continue to support our local businesses. Please start dialing for dinners and/or buying gift cards today.

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In this Easter season of hope, a cherished Aspen tradition sadly passes without the celebration so many of us have come to associate with the holiday, the sunrise service atop Aspen Mountain. This non-denominational annual community gathering often marks the end of ski season while ushering in the spring.  And while we lament the prematurely thwarted winter, we cannot help but look forward to summer and the end of this forced sequestration. Hope. From the confines of our homes, for today, it’s what we’ve got.

Meanwhile, this community never ceases to amaze me. More often than not, that’s a pejorative.  But in these unprecedented times, I am hopeful that some of our local electeds are beginning to face the harsh reality of making very difficult decisions like the rest of us.  Others, however, are still behaving as though their lemonade stand burned down and that a little glitter and millions in government handouts are the solution, but reality is going to drop on their heads like an anvil.  In the meantime, hopeful things are happening: $1.3 million in financial relief is already available through the county’s human services department with more coming, APCHA has taken steps to financially assist its renters through rent deferrals and changes to the minimum work requirements, and the city will be tapping into the $30 million Wheeler Opera House slush fund for vital loans.

It’s a good start, but there is more to be done.  We have to find a way to get our economy moving again, as soon as humanly possible.  I hope our electeds:

•  … recognize the need for relief/stimulus funds for as wide a segment of the local population as possible.  Means testing is appropriate for grants, but loans should be widely and equitably available.

•  … realize low/no interest loans are both helpful and fiscally responsible because they inherently promise reimbursement to the public coffers.

• … redefine “essential” as directly related to the delivery of integral services.  The size of our local governments is staggering and it’s time to right-size these institutions post haste. 

• … reconsider the construction moratorium immediately. In quiet times, construction activities can ramp up without significant impacts.  These projects keep people employed and the capital to see them completed is already in place. 

• … take special care of our locally-owned businesses.  How about low/no interest loans for rent and utility payments for their exclusive use?  And for a set period moving forward, establish these businesses as tax-free zones, waiving city sales tax to establish a competitive advantage to attract customers.

• … shift their focus from increasing government handouts that will require future service cuts to designing a robust “back to work” strategy, albeit with necessary precautions.

On a much lighter note and for some holiday levity, I am still hopeful for a 100-day pin. While not among the elite who earned a 100-day pin for each of the first ten seasons that SkiCo counted and who received the ultimate prize last spring, the 1000-day pin, I am a proud member of the 50% club, achieving this feat five of ten years running.  This season, I was well on-track for pin number six, with 83 days under my belt on Saturday, March 14, the day the music died and the lifts closed for the year.  Thirty-six days of skiing remained, of which I only needed 17.  I had visions of an IKON Pass road-trip or two, but I digress. 

Now that SkiCo is giving the 100-day pin on the honor system to those who have been uphilling during this crisis, I have a proposal that impacts the downhill diehards like myself who don’t have AT gear and have been riding our bikes instead.  Don’t get me wrong, no one wants a participation trophy.  The point is and has always been to earn it on the hill.  The concept is a bailout loan for downhillers, a contractual IOU where the commodity is skier days.

SkiCo, for my 2019-20 100-day pin, I owe you my first 17 days next season.  On my 17^th day skiing, I’ll show up at the ticket office for my pin and you can reset my pass to zero.  No handout, no subsidy, no fooling.  My challenge will be to get this done early, especially if I plan to embark on another 100-day odyssey.  (There are only so many possible days to ski each season.) An early opening would be to my advantage, but that is never assured.  SkiCo, you know who we are, the ones who came so so close.  What do you say?  Hope springs eternal.

Easter blessings and good health to you, your family and friends. 

ISSUE #163: A Booster Shot for the Local Economy (3/29/20)

 "We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope."

                                                    - Martin Luther King, jr.

It may not seem like there's a lot to do while in self-quarantine and lockdown, but there is.  There are many things you can do RIGHT NOW to support the local Aspen economy. Many restaurants are open and offering take-out, and many restaurants and retailers would love to sell you a gift card toward a future purchase. The immediate cash flow to our local businesses is vital - and much appreciated!

Please take a few minutes and make your lists.  If you're in town, start dialing for dinners!  And if you're not, please call your favorite restaurants and retailers and buy gift cards today.

Read my column in today's Aspen Times HERE

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It was heartening to read that as part of the local governments’ roles in providing economic relief for individuals, $200,000 has been offered up as initial assistance by the city of Aspen and another $850,000 by Pitkin County.  Considering the city’s $105 million annual budget and the county’s $141 million, one would assume that this is just a start, and that local citizens and businesses will eventually be the beneficiaries of more assistance than 0.4% of the total, but only time will tell.  After all, at the city, these are some of the same folks who conducted $350,000 geothermal drilling experiments and ignored $600,000 of unpaid parking fees. Obviously, nix the non-essential capital expenses and don’t fill the job vacancies, but what else can the local governments do to quickly and tangibly help the local economy during these uncertain times?

• Enact emergency ordinances. This is how our electeds can quickly make big, bold ideas happen. Emergency ordinances allow for curtailed processes and provide for immediate implementation. 
• Shrink the size of our local governments. With 320 full-time city employees and another 330 at the county, take a critical look at which positions are indeed “essential.”  Furloughs and lay-offs are an unfortunate reality of decreased revenues, just as in the private sector.
• Re-direct planned Housing Development Fund expenditures.  Postpone all new construction and instead put the anticipated expenditures toward buying-back subsidized housing units from distressed owners, and convert these into rentals.
• Reduce municipal fees on land use and development.  Reduce and/or eliminate many of the punitive fees placed on developers, such as the recent parking space and public right-of-way encroachment fee increases.  These costs will ultimately be passed on to tenants and consumers which is exactly what the local economy cannot afford.
• Tap into The Wheeler Opera House Fund. This $30 million fund has long been the city’s proprietary low-interest slush bucket. This embarrassment of riches funded by the RETT can be quickly allocated where it is vitally needed. 
• Re-evaluate the mill levies and consider property tax refunds.  Open Space and Trails pulls in more than four times what the Healthy Community Fund does, and nearly twice that of the Aspen Valley Hospital. There is clearly room for some short-term re-prioritizing, with the potential for refunds. 

The government’s number one priority is the health and welfare of the public.  We have the financial wherewithal and therefore the luxury to do whatever is necessary.  We also have a service-based economy and a workforce that relies on tourism and the money that is spent locally.  The repercussions of the global pandemic and impacts on our economy and workers will be devastating, and that’s in the short term.  

This community is special and takes care of its own, but COVID-19 is bigger than anything we have faced. Let’s not wait for the government to fix things. It’s not too soon to think of “recovery,” even while we are very much in the throes. In fact, we simply can’t wait until “it” is over. While we continue to wash our hands and shelter in place, here are several ways you can make an immediate positive economic impact in support of our local businesses and workers today:

• Order take-out. Many establishments are still offering food and beverages. Your patronage enables them to stay open and to keep at least some of their workers busy.  While they’re here for us, let’s be there for them.
• Purchase gift cards. The purchase of gift cards is like an interest-free loan to your favorite businesses and service providers, giving them desperately needed cashflow today.  You’ll be spending the money anyway, so why not pre-pay now for goods and services you’d be purchasing later.  If the business isn’t open, leave a message; someone will get back to you.  Trust me, they’ll really appreciate it.
• Don’t forget to tip.  It should be obvious; the service economy depends on tips.
• Deliver meals to friends and neighbors. There are many folks who can’t shell out for take-out right now.  Pay it forward and buy someone dinner.
• Utilize online offerings.  Many local exercise studios are offering free online classes. Nothing in life is free so tip your instructor.  If a subscription is offered, buy it. 
• Share your message of support and hope.  These are frightening and uncertain times and the fix will not be easy nor quick.  But your kindness and generosity will go a long way.

As we travel this new road together, the best thing we can do is be calm, be thoughtful and be safe.  We are fortunate not to be in a densely populated area, but the virus is indeed here and everyone is susceptible.  Please listen to the authorities and please take this seriously. Staying at home is going to get really old really fast, but please, for the good of the community, just do it. 

ISSUE #161: Aspen's City Hall - Where Vision Goes to Die 3/2/20

"Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others." - Jonathan Swift

When we elect the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker (oh yes, and the tennis instructor) to public office, we elect reactionaries vs visionaries to lead us. Without vision, short-sighted programs, policies and projects are now how we do things in formerly visionary Aspen.

Read my column in yesterday's Aspen Times HERE. 

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For generations, Aspen has epitomized “vision.” During the 70 years between 1880 and 1950, visionaries like Jerome B. Wheeler, Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke, and Friedl Pfeiffer saw Aspen’s unique potential for their individual pursuits.  Their visions, exemplifying our timeless “mind, body and spirit” ethos, were bold and risky at the time, but they had such lasting value and relevance that they helped put Aspen on the map, revived the nearly-abandoned ghost town, and live on today in the physical forms of the Hotel Jerome and the Wheeler Opera House, the Aspen Institute and the Aspen Skiing Company.

In the 70 years since, we’ve built upon the earlier visions.  We’ve grown up and out. We’ve paved our roads. We’ve built the gondola and the busiest ski town airport in North America. We’ve become a year-round, world-class, tourist destination and cultural mecca, as well as a community of over 6,500 residents, while making a significant effort to house our workforce and taking notable steps to preserve our character and history. Through the years, various visionary ideas have been presented, and, based on the opinions of the day, have been embraced (free buses, the pedestrian malls, and the revitalization of the Lift 1A neighborhood) or dismissed (parking beneath Wagner Park, a hydro-electric plant on Castle Creek, and a bank instead of a low-cost hotel at the Main Street Conoco). 

But as vision goes, Aspen is currently flailing. Take Galena Plaza, where six months into the planning process for a civic green space shoe-horned into the Taj Mahal City Hall-Parking Garage-Library campus, public feedback has been sought and given, yet there is zero mechanism for the city to incorporate it. Creative ideas that specifically address the stated goal of providing a link from town to the river have been shared, yet no city department has responsibility for exploring nor incorporating these concepts into the antithetical set-in-stone plans. In other words, the public outreach process has been a mere formality, and the city is just running out the clock on a generational opportunity.

Looking toward the next 70 years, where is the vision? With our local government at the helm, our visionary days are likely behind us.  A disturbing lack of vision is best illustrated today by the contrast between two large land parcels currently zoned Service-Commercial-Industrial (SCI), the lumberyard across from the airport, owned by the city of Aspen, and the Mill Street Commercial Center, owned by developer Mark Hunt. On parallel paths, both are soon to be developed.

The city’s 10.5-acre parcel, purchased with $29 million from the housing development fund, is rightly earmarked for subsidized housing. In order to fulfill its so-called vision, the city plans to re-zone this parcel for housing with a land-use application and effectively the mere stroke of a pen. Several short-sighted housing plans were recently presented, ranging from 143-212 units, with 150-312 parking spaces, a park ranging in size from 7000-62,000 square feet, and possibly a daycare center, surely driven by nearby neighbors in subsidized housing who prefer an attractive, low density, park-like development for full-time residents in their backyard.  Notably missing is any vision, in the form of the density so desperately needed to house our critical workforce, and the creation of a community setting that would include restaurants and conveniences so that those who live there won’t have to commute back into town for their basic needs. And really, who puts a community daycare facility three miles outside of town, necessitating two round trips per kid per day, amidst mind-numbing commuter traffic?

Meanwhile, Hunt’s vision for North Mill Street is truly visionary. It’s not my story to tell, but Hunt will gladly describe it to anyone who will listen. Suffice it to say, all walks of the community would benefit from Hunt’s revolutionary concept, and the local-serving businesses currently on the site would be incorporated into this unique and consequential project. Hunt’s idea would also entail a zoning change. Notably, any change would be a down-zoning from SCI, the most permissive zoning that allows for zero lot-lines and 35-foot tall buildings. In contrast to the city’s plans for the lumberyard, early discussions about a possible down-zoning for his parcel were met with, “Mark, you know what you bought.” This, from elected leaders who are apparently so consumed by the possibility of a developer making a buck that they didn’t even bother to ask what he envisions for this site. Apparently they’d prefer a car dealership, which could legally be built there tomorrow.

Who are the Wheelers, the Paepckes, the Pfeiffers of tomorrow? And how will they enact their visions in the Aspen of the future? The answer lies in changing how Aspen’s government and its elected leaders of today approach and embrace visionary solutions, especially when these ideas are not their own. When we elect the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker (oh yes, and the tennis instructor) to public office, we obviously don’t require them to pass a “vision” litmus test, but we should absolutely expect them to recognize, explore and, where possible, implement visionary ideas when presented with them.

ISSUE #160: Are Pet Projects and Punitive Priorities Principled Public Policy 2/16/20

"An oppressive government is more to be feared than a tiger."

                                                              - Confucius

Aspen's city council recently met to finalize their 2020 goals. The list shouldn't surprise anyone - it's a disturbing pattern of new taxes and regulations, as if we don't have enough already.  The "nanny city" lives on...

Read my column in today's Aspen Times HERE.

And for those who recently read my column "The Sheriff and Four Bureaucrats Walked into a Bar" - I am happy to report that the APCHA board voted 5-0 to continue with eviction proceedings in the Lee Mulcahy case. Read the Aspen Times coverage HERE.

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One year ago, it was the height of election season in Aspen. Our current city council took office in June and recently held its second retreat, finally setting goals for the term that will end in just over a year. According to councilwoman Ann Mullins, the group is “still learning to work together.” The delay in specifying priorities has even frustrated city manager Sara Ott, who admonished, “We are getting to the point where I need to know, because you’ve been in office for eight months now, what is it I need to get done for you by the end of the year?”

A revealing exercise at the retreat illustrated the individual personalities. Asked for a headline that reflects “their Aspen” in 2030, mayor Torre, a cheerleader for Aspen’s quality of life, replied, “Aspen named happiest and healthiest in U.S.” Ward Hauenstein, true to his environmental objectives, envisioned, “Aspen celebrates car-free downtown; residents divided, guests love it.” Rachel Richards, godmother of Aspen’s subsidized housing program, added, “Ribbon cutting for new senior housing today.” Ann Mullins idealistically remarked, “Aspen houses 70 percent of the workforce in housing program.” And Skippy Mesirow, the gift who keeps on giving, loquaciously pronounced, “Aspen, once known for Prada, now known for community, voted No. 1 in country for connection and kindness.”

At the end of the two-day confab, six directives emerged. Anticipate more development regulations such as increased fee-in-lieu, housing credits, employee generation and mitigation rates to benefit subsidized housing. These exactions are already prohibitively burdensome to development, and with further increases, will likely choke it to death, which is precisely the point. More worrisome is the city’s plan to address delayed subsidized housing maintenance and capital reserves policies. Much of our housing stock is in physical decline, primarily due to the lack of maintenance by individual HOAs that have additionally neglected their responsibilities to collect sufficient dues. However, a public bail-out of these HOAs will set a damning precedent throughout the housing program. Why would any HOA collect another cent if the public fixes what the owners never prepared for nor cared about? 

Next on the list is child care. The goal is to finance and expand local child care availability. Aspen’s shortage is not unique. Across America, working families grapple with the financial and logistical challenges of child care; it’s often why growing families move from more expensive urban areas to the suburbs. Surely this warrants a greater philosophical discussion. Is it the families’ responsibility or the community’s to provide child care? Memo to the local business community, mandates and fees are likely in your future because Aspen “the nanny city” says the responsibility is yours. 

There will be new capital expenditures and regulations to address environmental issues, specifically an underfunded expansion of the aging stormwater system and projects focused on treating outfalls to the Roaring Fork River. Additionally, the city will be implementing new requirements for energy use tracking and restrictive regulations to improve efficiency in commercial and multi-family buildings, with penalties for non-compliance.

And with characteristic hand-holding, group-hugging and kumbaya-singing, this notoriously indecisive council plans to add even more layers to its ineffective public policy decision-making. Anything for greater public participation and community engagement, including comical pet projects such as a 100% voter participation goal.

Two tax collection initiatives from last summer’s retreat are already underway, including the pursuit of sales tax remittance by internet retailers amidst the changing landscape of online shopping, and a further crackdown on short-term rentals that requires all owners to register as businesses and remit lodging taxes. And although not yet stated objectives, subsidized rent for local businesses along with a county-wide housing tax loiter in the shadows.

Notable, however, are the glaring omissions. Transportation didn’t make the cut, meaning the roundabout, given a “D” grade by the State of Colorado, and the Castle Creek Bridge, which is nearing the end of its lifespan, are not priorities this cycle.  Relegated to consultants, Galena Plaza, the public space adjacent to the new Taj Mahal city hall, has become a tragic missed opportunity that stands to impede connectivity between town, Rio Grande Park and the riverfront district. In the absence of prioritized financial oversight, construction delays, change orders and cost overruns already plague the Taj Mahal’s $50 million budget. Without clear council direction, preliminary proposals for new subsidized housing on the $29 million lumberyard parcel ignore what the community desperately needs, high density workforce housing. And lacking sufficient prioritization and proper funding, the recycling center on Rio Grande Place is in jeopardy, a glaring environmental misstep.

Universal community concerns like traffic and transportation, reliable infrastructure, basic recycling and fiscal discipline should be top priorities, especially given an annual budget of $112 million. If the stated goals are indeed actionable for 2020, Aspen faces numerous new taxes and regulations in an already overly-regulatory environment. Our glib council unequivocally derives great satisfaction from the power of its purse, enthusiastically creating new government programs and subsidies benefitting targeted segments of the populace, while implementing punitive regulations and bureaucratic hurdles at the supplemental expense of Aspen taxpayers, developers and business owners.