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Snowmass looks at more affordable housing

Katie Redding
The Aspen Times
Aspen, CO Colorado

SNOWMASS VILLAGE ” To keep costs reasonable, Snowmass Village will have to think creatively about building employee housing on the 17 acres it owns behind Town Hall.

That was the conclusion of Aspen-based Design Workshop, which presented a preliminary study of the site to the Snowmass Town Council on Tuesday night. Once Rodeo Place is built out, the acreage behind Town Hall, purchased in 1995, is the next logical site for employee housing in Snowmass, the preliminary study indicated.

The study also showed that between 50 and 74 units could feasibly be built on the site ” though infrastructure costs would increase substantially as unit numbers creep higher. Infrastructure costs would also increase if parking is provided next to the units, instead of a parking lot at the base, because of the expense of building a road to the top of the site.



Councilman Arnie Mordkin and Councilman Reed Lewis both noted the council had always thought of the development as a car-free, short-term rental project anyway.

The council will decide in May whether to pay the Design Workshop an additional $22,000 from the excise fund for a further review or complete the work in-house.




Council members also asked staff to review the current wait list for short-term rental housing.

The list once had more than 100 people on it, but has been a “moving target” in the last three or four months, according to Town Manager Russ Forrest.

kredding@aspentimes.com