Snowmass pursues affordability but remains split on housing initiatives

Snowmass Town Council on Monday approved the establishment of a resident committee to tackle affordability but remains divided on workforce housing initiatives.

The resolution, brandishing the slogan “thrive, not just survive,” established the committee to tackle challenges surrounding everyday cost burdens, cost of living, and quality of life alongside town staff. The town set aside $300,000 in the 2026 budget to focus on the initiative.

Though the town formally approved efforts to focus on affordability, council has been split twice in the past two months during approvals of major workforce housing developments — a subject at the nucleus of affordability, according to some council members.

While Council Member Susan Marolt said she is “very supportive” of the “thrive, not just survive” initiative and believes it is important to help the core of the community remain in town, she urged her fellow council members to support housing.

“I do just want to acknowledge that by far the most effective way to retain those residents in our community is housing,” Marolt said of Snowmass’ core residents. 

She added that she’d like to “encourage, plead, beg, empower, implore” her colleagues to support the housing proposals that come in front of them, rather than give a “flat no.”

“Because I think that’s contradictory to what we say we want to do here,” she said. 

Council on Jan. 20 was split three-to-two on the preliminary approval of the Draw Site workforce housing project, enough to move it to the next round of approval. But final approval will require a four-to-one “supermajority” vote to greenlight the development, which would boast five stories, 66 units, and be located just uphill of Snowmass Town Hall. 

Snowmass Mayor Alyssa Shenk and Marolt voted in favor of the project. Council Member Tom Fridstein voted in favor but said he was disappointed with the projects’ final design because it was too expensive and the architects were planning to build too much on too difficult a site. The building is projected to cost $75 million and would require substantial excavation as the site is sloped. 

Council Member Britta Gustafson voted against the project, as she felt it wasn’t the appropriate mass and scale and mirrored architecture of the base village that “hasn’t been particularly favored by much of the community.”

Council Member Cecily DeAngelo also voted against the project, echoing concerns about the project’s size and worrying about the implications of the 102 parking spots included in the design. 

“Paying at this really high rate to dig out our mountain for cars in a location that should be able to be really car minimal is really hard for me to take in,” she said. 

Council in December was also split three-to-two voting on the preliminary approval of the SHOP housing project up Divide Way, a proposed 30-unit workforce housing project for Aspen Skiing Company employees. 

Marolt and Gustafson voted in favor, arguing, respectively, it would decrease wait times and “was just big enough” to provide housing without sacrificing conservation efforts. Fridstein also voted in favor but worried about transit to and from the project, as well as the project’s density. 

Shenk and DeAngelo voted against the development, both arguing the development’s location — about 1.5 miles by road from Snowmass Base Village — was a deterrent. Shenk said she felt it would place too many people away from the central nodes of town; DeAngelo said council should focus on building housing that wouldn’t require residents to rely on cars to get to their desired destinations.

While the preliminary approval passed with the simple majority, an impending final approval vote requires a four-to-one, as with the Draw Site.

The town in 2018 identified a need for 383 workforce housing units to meet demand. In 2023, it set a goal of creating 185 new units. There are currently 280 local employees on the waiting list for Snowmass’ 300 rental units, according to the town.

Skyler Stark-Ragsdale can be reached at 970-429-9152 or email him at sstark-ragsdale@aspentimes.com.