Mick for Mayor

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Mick for Mayor

Small Town Charm: Position Paper

One of City Council's most important jobs is to preserve the small town charm and feel that makes Aspen so special. That means protecting the historic integrity of our neighborhoods and our business districts. The only way to do that is to say "no" to some applications for development or redevelopment. The stakes for our town are high, and the council needs to come to the table ready to call the bluff on some of the claims made by developers.

When I say we need to protect the integrity of our business district, I'm not just talking about preserving buildings. I understand the redevelopment of buildings is an important part of business itself. But we must avoid allowing every commercial building to be turned into a mix of high-end residential and limited-use businesses. Protecting the vitality of Aspen that we all appreciate means creating places where low-margin to mid-margin businesses can rent a storefront and offer their services. Imagine Aspen without a hardware store or with only one supermarket. Would we be complete without a laundromat or a small appliance repair shop?

We currently have protections in our zoning code that allows for such businesses to exist and hopefully thrive. The SCI zone bars certain high-end retail and office uses from renting space around Clark's Market and at the new Obermeyer Place development between Main Street and the Roaring Fork River. This is a small portion of our business district that houses a significant number of what I call "local-serving" businesses. To open these areas up to real estate offices and boutique retailers, as one mayoral candidate suggests, would be a disservice to anyone looking to have their vacuum repaired, rent a movie, or have a piece of glass custom cut. I pledge to protect the zoning that has protected some of the most vital parts of our economy.

We need to be cautious about calls for "revitalization." At the beginning of the decade, when skier visits were down and the commercial core was empty and sterile partly due to overregulation, it made sense to explore ways for revitalizing downtown Aspen. It wasn't a very vital place in 2001 or 2002. But much has changed. The Aspen Skiing Company has successfully marketed its mountains and our town as one of the coolest places to be. The company's relationship with ESPN and its critical investments in the ski area have helped us turn the corner. Now it's important that we don't lose the character and charm that makes Aspen a great place to live or visit. We can't allow every building to turn over to the "highest and best use" if that leaves us without a truly vital mix of businesses. There are places for real estate offices, fractional development showrooms and the high-end chain boutiques, and there are places for sports equipment swap shops and laundromats. The City Council's job is to recognize and protect both types.

The infill regulations resulted in the mess we find ourselves in by favoring redevelopment over other equally important community goals. As mayor, I will make sure those other community goals are protected. That means preserving people's views and respecting the scale of our town. A 41-foot building on every other corner serves no one but the builder. That means requiring developers to build affordable housing on site or near their developments. We must return to our long tradition of requiring developers to mitigate the effects of their projects. And it means keeping development and redevelopment at a pace we can live with. Nobody's going to lose their shirt if we require construction management plans that limit impacts on neighbors and put in measures to pace development at levels acceptable to the people who live and work in Aspen.

As mayor, I pledge to protect, with zoning, our business districts from becoming homogenous and boring. And I will work to limit the effects of new development and redevelopment on our lives and livelihoods.