This week: Candidates, Ballot Questions, Landfill

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What's happening...

(ACC - Aspen City Council, BOCC - Pitkin Board of County Commissioners)

🗳️ Mayoral & council candidate deadline approaches

The deadline for signatures and paperwork is December 23. Three seats are up for election: Mayor Torre, who is completing his final term, and Council Member Ward Hauenstein, who is also finishing his term. Council Member John Doyle is seeking re-election, while Sam Rose and Bill Guth will continue serving their remaining two-year terms.

🚌🚗 Entrance to Aspen March ballot questions

On Tuesday, council approved ballot language for two opposing referendums related to the Entrance to Aspen. Referendum No. 1 seeks to amend the city charter requiring that any sale, exchange or disposition of any park or opens space requires approval by least 60% of the electors voting. This goes against Referendum No. 2, which seeks to allow the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) authority for the utilization of portions of Marolt Open Space and Thomas properties for the Preferred Alternative memorialized in the Record of Decision (ROD).

♻️ Construction & demolition debris diversion

First reading took place Tuesday on adoption of a construction & demolition debris diversion ordinance that would apply to construction projects great than 2,000 sf and would require that 100% of all possible recoverable materials be diverted. The city has an ambitious goal of reducing all waste going to the landfill by 70% by 2050. It's estimated that construction & demolition debris account for 53% of the total materials buried in the Pitkin County landfill.

◼️ Re-pave paradise and parking lots

Council approved a $2,388,867 contract to repave streets, parking lots and trails in need of rehabilitation. The memo mentions that "because buses exert approximately 1200 times more impact on asphalt pavement due to their weight, this year's street paving focuses on the most heavily impacted street sections including bus routes."

🙅🏻 🤗 Membership club inclusivity

At Monday's work session, council debated the quandary of how to discourage more membership clubs. Staff presented two options in its request for direction:

1) Enforce on new (those beyond the two, long-standing examples of this model) membership-based clubs that do not offer a day-pass option. This would take place within our established progressive enforcement policy. The violation would be based in the fact that these spaces are not open “to the general public”.

2) Not enforce and create a new Use Category within the LUC that describes membership-based clubs and provides allowances and limitations specific to this use. This would create these types of uses as a distinct “permitted use” with provisions different from other commercial uses. This would require a Land Use Code Amendment.