Aspen, Colorado:
HPC, public are split on requested variances
The developer behind a proposed lodge at the corner of Main and Monarch streets are asking the city to bear the brunt of no on-site parking, no affordable housing, no setbacks and a height and mass that well exceed the zone district, in exchange for a new hotel that caters to the economy minded.
Based on the reaction to the proposal from Mark Hunt at Wednesday’s Historic Preservation Commission meeting, the first public hearing on the plan, the offer could split the community.
HPC did not vote on the proposal, and will take it up again on Dec. 3. Some on the board appeared enthusiastic about granting Hunt’s variances, while others showed caution, calling for a smaller building and expressing skepticism over whether a hotel with 37 rooms — albeit tiny rooms, at 190 square feet — can work without any parking.
Hunt, who along with investors paid $6 million in June for the 6,000-square-foot lot currently home to a Conoco gas station, is proposing to build a three-story, 18,000-square-foot building on the site, whereas the underlying mixed-use zone district would allow, at the most, a 7,500-square-foot structure. Its partially gabled roof would reach 38 feet at its peak, while the zoning calls for heights in the 28- to 32-foot range. The land use code also calls for parking for 21 cars and housing for two employees.
City senior planner Sara Adams noted that the commercial core zone district, which begins across Monarch Street from the proposed lodge, allows 40-foot-tall buildings. She described the site as being in transition between more restrictive zoning and the more generous sizes allowed in the commercial core.
Hunt also is proposing a sister lodge encompassing the same concept and a similar program for another site he owns at 720 E. Cooper Ave., currently home to Johnny McGuire’s. That proposal gets its first review before the Planning and Zoning Commission on Dec. 2.
Aspen City Council is the final review authority on both projects, and is looking to HPC and P&Z for recommendations on whether to grant approval.
Planning consultant Mitch Haas, speaking on behalf of the project team, said it’s extraordinary that the application is not asking for any free market condos that normally drive real estate developments in Aspen. He also noted that the project’s rooftop deck and basement-level entertainment areas would be open to the public. Overall, the project is a play to appeal to the younger generation that has passed over Aspen as being too expensive and exclusive, he said.
Courtesy rendering
“[It’s] basically what everyone in the last 15 to 20 years has been saying can’t be done,” Haas said of the proposal.
He added that Hunt is in discussions with city officials about acquiring the use of parking spaces in the Rio Grande parking garage. The city manager’s office has indicated that it could license 40 to 50 spaces in the garage to the two economy lodges in the fall, winter and spring, and 20 to 25 spaces in the summer.
Read Full Article from the Aspen Daily News: By Curtis Wackerle http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/164678
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