BOCC’s favoritism on display with Pandora’s

Dear Board of County Commissioners:

I listened to your continued conversation after you closed public comment. It’s my understanding that you have closed public comment, effective today (Nov. 10), including the ability to comment regarding the revised resolution and ordinance (which does not exist at the time of our comment). That’s quite concerning considering that the revised resolution, ordinance, and covenant will not be finalized until after that deadline, and apparently no public comment will be allowed.

Obviously, anyone who cares about the backside of Aspen Mountain is quite concerned about your straw poll, along with the evident favoritism for a specific business interest (which is wholly improper and constitutes spot-zoning). It’s great that some of you suddenly care about the East of Aspen Plan, but your decision here to allow an industrial use within a formally designated Rural/Remote property will obviously impact the character of the entire ridge — again, without the planning your professional staff asked for.

I wish you all the very best — and I mean Pitkin County, broadly. I know you’ve been leaned on heavily by SkiCo, as well as the so-called “Friends of Pandora.”

I regret I didn’t have the bandwidth to deal with this and try to organize folks in a grassroots effort, but people did show up to the early meetings and perhaps felt unheard thereafter. To those of you who might vote for SkiCo’s expansion and also ran on platforms of rural land preservation, climate change, and backcountry preservation, please stop saying you care about any of these issues.

Hoping for a better future for Pitkin County,

Marcella Larsen

Co-Manager, Larsen Family LP