Base Village has the best access to skiing, hiking, biking, free village shuttles, free Aspen buses and downvalley transit. We live there in summer and winter.<\/p>\n
Aspen Skiing Co. does a fabulous job on the mountain \u2014 what they don\u2019t talk about is Skico\u2019s Base Village has six entities assessing Base Village residential owners with nine inadequately disclosed taxes and fees.<\/p>\n
Just two examples are:<\/p>\n
1. Residential owners are paying $11.5 million of construction debt on the public parking and transit center while receiving none of the revenues and the developer-controlled tax district owns them.<\/p>\n
2. Residential owners, assessed at three times the rate of commercial owners, pay 77% of the Base Village Master HOA budget for all snowmelt in Base Village for all plazas and walkways, all public rest rooms, skating rink, fire pits, etc.<\/p>\n
In contrast, Skico\u2019s Limelight hotel paid the town\u2019s 1% real estate transfer tax but not the 1% real estate transfer fee to the Base Village Master HOA of about a half-million dollars and arranged to lower their annual assessment to the master HOA by over $100,000 a year. The Limelight condo owners and other residential owners did not receive these benefits.<\/p>\n
The Limelight\/Skico maneuvering is especially egregious because Skico, East West and KSL got $20 million to $40 million in additional value with the 20 condos that replaced the long-promised and never-built 30,000-square-foot aqua center as a result of the 2015 PUD amendment.<\/p>\n
Residential owners are willing to pay a fair share, but we expect Skico, et al, to do the same.<\/p>\n
Pat Keefer<\/p>\n
Snowmass and Texas<\/p>\n