More red tape for Aspen condo owners

I was disappointed to learn Aspen City Council on Oct. 13 reversed its previously stated position and decided to include the owners of local condo hotel units under a new licensing fee and administrative procedure intended to regulate unlicensed short-term rentals.

The concerns raised at the meeting by local condo hotel unit owner Michael Brown regarding the need for this new rule received a less-than-cordial response from council. Certainly Mr. Brown was representing his own substantial ownership of these types of properties, but I feel he also spoke for those of us with much smaller holdings. (In my case, I own a single condo hotel unit.) Owners of this type of property hire on-site management to assure that all existing rules for short-term rentals are adhered to, our units are regularly inspected by the fire department and the building department, and if so much as a doorknob needs to be replaced historical preservation folks must give their approval for the replacement knob.

So my question for council is: With all of these protections currently in place for condo hotel units, how does our citizenry further benefit by the imposition of an additional license and seemingly redundant administrative process?

Bill Von Stocken

Aspen