Council gives feedback on designing Aspen Golf Club as ‘community hub’

The Golf Department and Business Services Division, along with representatives from DTJ Design, presented an update to Aspen City Council Monday on the Golf Clubhouse Area Master Plan in order to receive direction on the scale of the project for design.

The options for council recommendation varied between “updating,” meaning focusing on repairs with no increase in size, “upgrading,” meaning modernizing and adding some new amenities, and “reimagining,” meaning extensive redevelopment and growth. Updating would be the least expensive option, with reimagining presenting the highest cost.

“Our goal tonight is not to try to convince (council) of any direction — it’s actually quite the opposite,” Aspen Golf General Manager Jim Pratt said. “We just would like to get some direction.”

The preliminary project goals, according to the presentation, include updating the facilities to serve the community for the long-term, improving user experience, increasing operational efficiency, providing new revenue generating opportunities, reducing carbon emissions with energy efficiency and more. In response to Mayor Rachael Richards’ previous comments, staff is also considering employee housing initiatives.

Richards was absent from Monday’s meeting.

In 2025, the city hired Sirius Golf Advisors, a golf industry consulting firm, to update the Golf Business Plan in order to improve business opportunities for the facility. This year, the city is collaborating with the planning and design consultant, DTJ Design, to develop the Golf Clubhouse Area Master Plan, which incorporates insights from recent community surveys, stakeholder meetings and engagement sessions.

The community survey, which closed March 31 and received 534 responses, highlighted the significance of the Aspen Golf Club as a community hub.

“This has been the message loud and clear,” Pratt said.

Survey results also emphasized the importance of keeping the golf club “affordable and accessible,” according to the presentation.

The survey was part of the first of four phases, the Discovery and Listening Phase, which has been taking longer than anticipated. The meeting with council is the tail end of that phase, after which staff can move to Design Vision, followed by Draft Plan Review and Final Adoption.

The presentation acknowledged that the Aspen Golf Club is currently facing not just constraints for space in terms of reimagining the club with opportunities for indoor tennis courts and additional spaces for year round use, but also for parking.

“Parking is probably one of the biggest challenges that we’re seeing with this project,” Pratt said.

The option of underground parking was floated, with Council Member Bill Guth also asking staff to consider implementing paid parking.

“If you haven’t talked about it already … I’d like you to talk about and contemplate paid parking,” Guth said. “I think that could resolve a lot of the … parking concerns.”

Council Member John Doyle went as far as asking if staff had considered reconfiguring the golf course itself in order to create additional space, although he was told it would be too challenging to move that much ground.

“I’m between upgrade and reimagine,” Doyle determined. “As our golf and tennis season gets longer every year, I think this is going to be needed.”

Sam Rose noted that he was encouraged by the survey responses and said he agreed with everything that it focused on. For him, long-term prioritization is key while balancing that with construction duration, cost and more.

“Something needs to be done,” he said. “(But) I think we’re value-signaling here … we can’t make any declarative statement not knowing so much.”

He added, however, that he had an appetite for something that could reimagine the space to some capacity.

“I really want you to pursue all the themes in your survey,” Rose said. “I think there’s a real opportunity here for something special.”

Council Member Christine Benedetti, who joined the meeting virtually, said she was leaning more toward the update or upgrade level, wanting to balance what the community needs long-term with realistic finances.

On the topic of finances, Guth pointed out that because the city of Aspen is the one supporting this project, design might consider prioritizing the Aspen resident and experience more.

“This is the Aspen Golf Club,” Guth said. “I think that we are very generous with the broader community and … I think we should reevaluate that.”

He asked for staff to consider this with regard to fees, priority access, potential locker space and more.

“If Aspen is paying for this, then Aspen needs to be treated differently than everyone else,” he said.

Council will be able to revisit the project once designs have been created based off the council’s thoughts at this meeting.

“It’s an evolution,” said DTJ Design’s David Poppleton of the process.