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Aspen a victim of bad policies and planning

​In response to “We got left eating pixie dust” by Roger Marlot (commentary, March 4, The Aspen Times). The pixie dust case study is that the no-growth land-use and zoning policies of the Roaring Fork Valley, especially Pitkin County, has created the most imbalanced economic and real estate market perhaps in the world.

The community stuck to its guns for decades thinking they could stop evolution, but it only made it worse. The strategy failed worse than any dot-com IPO, et. al., causing the market to fail. The politicians and planners lack in experience and are operating in a vacuum ignoring examples from around the world as well as the history of land use and economic planning that has been around for centuries.

Roger, you said it last month in one of your columns spot on — “only we are to blame.” Don’t worry, there is still hope, but the community needs to realize the land use and zoning created this imbalance, and no-growth policy and politics is not planning — it is ignorance of evolution of land use and economic supply and demand.



Brad Hahn

Aspen