{"id":2443387,"date":"2019-04-24T20:40:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T02:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/aspen-council-mark-hunt-deadlocked-over-rezone\/"},"modified":"2019-04-25T06:26:17","modified_gmt":"2019-04-25T12:26:17","slug":"aspen-council-mark-hunt-deadlocked-over-rezone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-council-mark-hunt-deadlocked-over-rezone\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen council, Mark Hunt deadlocked over rezone"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

The ownership group of two Aspen buildings home to 21 businesses is regrouping after the City Council denied its request earlier this week to rezone the property.<\/p>\n

Mark Hunt, the public face of investors behind multiple commercial properties in the downtown redevelopment hopper, also wants to make over the neighboring buildings at 465 and 557 N. Mill St., in the area by the post office and across the street from the Clark\u2019s Market shopping center. The two buildings are known as the Mill Street Commercial Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love this property,\u201d Hunt told the City Council. \u201cI think this property has a ton of opportunity. I think there could be something there that could be really exciting, super cool, not only visually and architecturally, but with the uses.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the City Council\u2019s four members at Monday\u2019s meeting \u2014 Bert Myrin was absent \u2014 unanimously voted to reject the proposed rezoning of the property to mixed-use, which would allow office, commercial, residential, service, civic and public uses.<\/p>\n

The council\u2019s decision followed the cue of the Aspen Planning and Zoning Commission, which Feb. 19 voted 5-1 in recommending denial of the project. The city\u2019s Community Development Department also recommended denial, citing, among other things, the would-be mixed-use zone buildings wouldn\u2019t be compatible with the surrounding neighborhoods and existing tenants would likely be displaced.<\/p>\n

The Mill Street Commercial Center currently is zoned service-commercial-industrial, or SCI. The SCI zoning designation is intended for locally serving businesses that can\u2019t afford the rents the downtown core demands. The two Mill Street buildings\u2019 tenants include Aspen\u2019s sole coin-operated laundromat, an auto-service shop, a packaging store, a sporting goods consignment store and other enterprises.<\/p>\n

Hunt\u2019s group, North Mill Street LLC, bought the two buildings from a group of owners including father-and-son Andy and Nikos Hecht for $15 million in June 2018<\/a>. The new owners also inherited the former owners\u2019 application to rezone the property.<\/p>\n

But the City Council\u2019s adoption of Ordinance 29 in January 2017 \u2014 one of six new ordinances that were part of an overhaul of the city\u2019s land-use code \u2014 forbids residential development on the two properties in question. That prompted the Hecht team to sue the city in February 2017 in Pitkin County District Court, saying the ordinance unfairly targeted the Mill Street Commercial Center by not allowing residential development there.<\/p>\n

The city had not been served with that suit nor the one Hunt\u2019s North Mill Street LLC filed in January in federal court making the same allegations until Monday, before the City Council rejected the zoning change.<\/p>\n

Attorney Chris Bryan of Garfield & Hecht PC, the Aspen firm that is litigating the matter, said Wednesday it was merely a coincidence that the city was served the same day the council made the decision, which came near the end of its meeting Monday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last thing we want to do is drag out a legal fight with the city,\u201d Bryan said, noting the city has 60 days to respond to the federal court suit, but added that the Hunt team is willing to give it more time while negotiations continue.<\/p>\n

With a three new officeholders set to be sworn in June 10 \u2014 Mayor-elect Torre and council members Skippy Mesirow and Rachel Richards \u2014 Bryan said \u201cwe can have communications with them about the property in general and in the context of the litigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just think it\u2019s fair for the new City Council to be installed and sworn in. This is a big decision and everybody agrees this is an important piece of property.\u201d<\/p>\n

The main building, which fronts Puppy Smith Street, sits on just over 1 acre of land and comprises 20,645 feet. The other building, 7,990 square feet, rests on 0.145 acre.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel there are opportunities much greater than what you see with the status quo,\u201d Chris Bendon, one of Hunt\u2019s land-use planners, told the council. \u201cThis has led us to seek the rezoning.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, however, the current City Council stands opposed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the interest of supporting local businesses, at this point I cannot support rezoning,\u201d said Councilman Ward Hauenstein, who is nearing the midway point of his first four-year term.<\/p>\n

Other council members agreed, as did resident Steve Humboldt, whose wife owns Millennium Pack & Ship, which is located in the 465 N. Mill building.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the voice that\u2019s getting lost here is the certain business that are there right now,\u201d he told the council before it made its decision. \u201cThey would not survive a rezoning; they would not survive a rebuilding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hunt, however, said change is inevitable at the Mill Street Commercial Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis vote isn\u2019t saving these businesses,\u201d he said. \u201cWe could give (the businesses) notices and empty the building tomorrow; that\u2019s not the point. Something will be done here, regardless of what the zoning is.\u201d<\/p>\n

rcarroll@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ownership group of two Aspen buildings home to 21 businesses is regrouping after the City Council denied its request earlier this week to rezone the property. Mark Hunt, the public face of investors behind multiple commercial properties in the downtown redevelopment hopper, also wants to make over the neighboring buildings at 465 and 557 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2443387","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 06:25:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2443387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2443387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2443387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2443387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}