{"id":2449105,"date":"2019-09-24T21:25:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-25T03:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=313372"},"modified":"2019-09-24T21:25:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-25T03:25:00","slug":"aspen-officials-walk-back-pedestrian-mall-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-officials-walk-back-pedestrian-mall-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen officials walk back pedestrian mall plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery p402_hide\" readability=\"5.7183098591549\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-313372-236\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/09\/Pedestrianmalls-atd-092419-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/09\/Pedestrianmalls-atd-092419.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"|\" class=\"h-100\">\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/09\/Pedestrianmalls-atd-092419.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/09\/Pedestrianmalls-atd-092419-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/09\/Pedestrianmalls-atd-092419-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"KELSEY BRUNNER | People mill around the walking mall on Tuesday, September 10, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-0.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"10\">\n<p><strong>People mill around the walking mall on Tuesday, September 10, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong><br \/>KELSEY BRUNNER<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/09\/Pedestrianmalls-atd-092419-1.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"People mill around the walking mall on Tuesday, September 10, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/local\/aspen-officials-walk-back-pedestrian-mall-plan\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/local\/aspen-officials-walk-back-pedestrian-mall-plan\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText DropCap\">Anticipating that private development will happen on nearly three-quarters of downtown Aspen\u2019s pedestrian malls in the coming years, the city\u2019s elected officials decided Tuesday to continue plans for an <a id=\"N0x296ed50N0x290d340:N0x296ed50N0x2abdd90\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/magazines\/aspen-times-weekly\/are-aspens-pedestrian-malls-due-for-makeover\/\">overhaul of the three-block brick surface<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">After more than a year on ice, conceptual design plans to overhaul the malls on Hyman and Cooper avenues and Mill Street are moving forward to schematic design.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">But Aspen City Council members cautioned that just because they support schematic design does not mean that the malls will be ripped up anytime soon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">But detailed plans will establish, at a minimum, what building owners and developers will be expected to design their projects to, including infrastructure beneath the surface and what grade their structures will need to be at.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cOne of the reasons we got into this is that a lot of buildings did get sold and development was imminent,\u201d said Councilwoman Ann Mullins, who is in her third year of a four-year term.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Besides trying to time improving the condition of the aging malls with future development, underground utilities and ADA access are driving what will be a very expensive project for the city.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">City Manager Sara Ott told council she couldn\u2019t even guess what the price tag is at this conceptual stage and it\u2019s not in the municipal government\u2019s five-year capital plan at this point.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The mall\u2019s surface is more than 40 years old and some of the underground infrastructure hasn\u2019t been touched in six decades, according to Michelle Bonfils Thibeault, the city\u2019s project manager.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">What\u2019s more is the 320,000 bricks originally laid down in 1976 are deteriorating and need to be replaced, even though there are fewer than 30,000 left and will only last a few more years, according to Thibeault.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">A majority of current council members said Tuesday during a work session that they want to pare down what a <a id=\"N0x296ed50N0x290d580:N0x296ed50N0x2abe330\" href=\"http:\/\/www.aspenpedestrianmall.com\/\">previous council signed off on in March of 2018<\/a>, which was developed and presented by landscape architecture firm Design Workshop after years of public engagement and feedback.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cLet\u2019s modify some of the idealism for realism,\u201d Councilwoman Rachel Richards said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The bathrooms near Wagner Park don\u2019t need to be moved, and new water features and a shelter for skis are not necessary, she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI don\u2019t want to diminish the great work here,\u201d Richards said, adding that she wants to keep the malls in their historic state as much as possible and approach the project in a minimalist way. \u201cI think some things are wish list. \u2026 It\u2019s been said before that we don\u2019t build church for Christmas Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Council members agreed that they want to keep the malls as an urban park and honor their historic elements by not changing too much.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThe malls really work now,\u201d said Councilman Ward Hauenstein, noting that three different City Councils have looked at the mall project. \u201cI\u2019d like to keep it the way it is now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Elected officials also voiced their concern for businesses on the mall that will be impacted by a years-long project and phasing construction will likely be necessary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Design Workshop had refined its scope of work after the project was in a holding pattern for so long; council agreed to a $1 million schematic design contract rather than a previous administration\u2019s $3.8 million plan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Design Workshop will take council\u2019s comments into account as it develops schematic design in the coming months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\"><a href=\"mailto:csackariason@aspentimes.com\">csackariason@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/local\/aspen-officials-walk-back-pedestrian-mall-plan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>People mill around the walking mall on Tuesday, September 10, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)KELSEY BRUNNER Show CaptionsHide Captions Anticipating that private development will happen on nearly three-quarters of downtown Aspen\u2019s pedestrian malls in the coming years, the city\u2019s elected officials decided Tuesday to continue plans for an overhaul of the three-block brick surface. After [&hellip;]<\/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-2449105","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-27 07:07:56","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&#039;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\/2449105","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=2449105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449105\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2449105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2449105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2449105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}