{"id":2448587,"date":"2019-09-11T22:40:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-12T04:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/pitkin-county-commissioners-approve-skicos-10-year-project\/"},"modified":"2019-09-12T08:46:36","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T14:46:36","slug":"pitkin-county-commissioners-approve-skicos-10-year-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/pitkin-county-commissioners-approve-skicos-10-year-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitkin County commissioners approve Skico\u2019s 10-year project"},"content":{"rendered":"
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After months of meetings, Pitkin County commissioners on Wednesday approved a 10-year master plan for Aspen Mountain, though the approval didn\u2019t include the Pandora\u2019s expansion area.<\/p>\n

Aspen Skiing Co. officials asked the county board in an Aug. 30 letter to carve out the proposed 167-acre Pandora\u2019s expansion area at the top eastern section of Aspen Mountain and address it as a separate development application. The request came after a late August meeting in which commissioners split 2-2 on whether to approve the new ski terrain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a wise decision by the Ski Company in looking at the tea leaves,\u201d said Commissioner George Newman, who voted to approve Pandora\u2019s last month. \u201cThey can address the issues raised and come back and respond.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commissioner Steve Child, who opposed the Pandora\u2019s expansion last month, also said he thought Skico\u2019s separation of its Pandora\u2019s plans was wise.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow they can proceed with the things they want to do this fall,\u201d Child said. \u201cPandora could take months and months still.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pandora\u2019s application \u2014 which includes rezoning those 167 acres from the restrictive Rural and Remote designation to a less restrictive Ski Recreation tag and building a 4,191-foot-long lift \u2014 was postponed until Oct. 9. That date, however, is merely a placeholder so Skico can figure out how long it will take to address commissioner concerns about Pandora\u2019s, meaning the application will likely be addressed by the county board later than October.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Skico now can begin acting on approvals in the Aspen Mountain Master Plan that were approved Wednesday. That includes rebuilding Buckhorn Cabin, relocating and rebuilding the ski patrol shack atop Aspen Mountain, increasing the number of nighttime events at the Sundeck and possibly opening Ruthie\u2019s Restaurant during the day.<\/p>\n

One of the major discussion points Wednesday involved hashing out the number of nighttime events Skico can hold per year at the Sundeck, as well as the corresponding operating times for the Silver Queen Gondola. Skico wanted to increase the number of events from 72 per year to 150 per year.<\/p>\n

Newman, however, balked at that number even though Skico officials said they\u2019d received no community complaints about nighttime gondola use or Sundeck use.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like a lot to double it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Instead, Newman suggested capping the number of nighttime events at 110 per year, while giving Skico the ability to come back to the board later if that isn\u2019t enough. His colleagues agreed.<\/p>\n

As far as gondola hours, Skico wanted to be able to have all guests down from the Sundeck by 1 a.m., and all staff down the mountain by 2 a.m.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Kelly McNicholas Kury said she thought midnight \u201cwas more reasonable,\u201d though the other three commissioners felt the times Skico wanted were acceptable. The 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. cut-offs were eventually approved.<\/p>\n

Also approved Wednesday was tearing down the ski patrol shack at the top of Aspen Mountain and building a new 1,500- to 2,500-square-foot ski patrol building next to the north wall of the gondola.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome in the community have deep nostalgia for the ski patrol shack,\u201d Commissioner Greg Poschman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll certainly make pieces of it available to the public,\u201d said David Corbin, Skico vice president for planning.<\/p>\n

Buckhorn Cabin also will be torn down and rebuilt. After initially placing the new building close to the ridge where the current cabin sits, Skico moved it back from the edge based on commissioner suggestions. The new cabin will be 1,000 square feet and feature bathrooms and a large deck.<\/p>\n

Ruthie\u2019s Restaurant, which closed about a decade ago, will be allowed to be renovated and can open during the day for food service. Skico can open Ruthie\u2019s for nighttime food service as well, though officials will have to come back to the county board with a nighttime plan that must be approved by commissioners.<\/p>\n

Two proposed resort cabins that would have housed tourists overnight near Ruthie\u2019s were axed from the master plan early on. Those cabins are completely off the table at this point and won\u2019t be allowed even under further review.<\/p>\n

Finally, commissioners balked at allowing a playground-type area with climbing walls, a bungee trampoline and challenge courses at the top of Aspen Mountain. McNicholas Kury said she didn\u2019t support such structures, which could have reached 28 feet in height, and her colleagues agreed that any such use would only be allowed under further review from commissioners.<\/p>\n

Skico also initially asked for a two-year trial plan for gondola-served mountain biking on Aspen Mountain. Commissioners eliminated that provision from the master plan, though Skico can come back to the commissioners later with a mountain biking plan that also would be considered under the further review process.<\/p>\n

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

After months of meetings, Pitkin County commissioners on Wednesday approved a 10-year master plan for Aspen Mountain, though the approval didn\u2019t include the Pandora\u2019s expansion area. Aspen Skiing Co. officials asked the county board in an Aug. 30 letter to carve out the proposed 167-acre Pandora\u2019s expansion area at the top eastern section of Aspen […]<\/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-2448587","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-26 13:58:36","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\/2448587","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=2448587"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2448608,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448587\/revisions\/2448608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2448587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2448587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2448587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}