{"id":2449611,"date":"2019-10-07T21:52:01","date_gmt":"2019-10-08T03:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/aspens-electeds-looking-at-power-structure-of-citizen-boards\/"},"modified":"2019-10-08T08:31:54","modified_gmt":"2019-10-08T14:31:54","slug":"aspens-electeds-looking-at-power-structure-of-citizen-boards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspens-electeds-looking-at-power-structure-of-citizen-boards\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen\u2019s electeds looking at power structure of citizen boards"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Aspen City Council on Monday<\/a> gave the go-ahead on 13 priorities it wants to tackle in the next year, including examining the power some citizen boards have when making decisions that elected officials don\u2019t have the authority to change.<\/p>\n

One example is the city\u2019s all-citizen volunteer Historic Preservation Commission, which often is the final reviewer and decision-maker on land-use applications.<\/p>\n

That was the case last December when the HPC went against the recommendations<\/a> of the local housing board and the city\u2019s community development department regarding mitigation imposed on a developer.<\/p>\n

The housing board and city staff wanted developer Mark Hunt to replace deed-restricted apartments onsite in a yet-to-be redeveloped building at 517 Hopkins Ave.<\/p>\n

HPC members liked Hunt\u2019s plans to lease to a global workspace company, and thought it was enough of a community benefit that it could replace onsite housing.<\/p>\n

Currently, there are four apartments on the third floor of the current building, but with HPC\u2019s approval they will be replaced elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is important enough to have as a single goal,\u201d said Councilwoman Ann Mullins during Monday\u2019s work session. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen the problems in the last few years that come up when affordable housing decisions are made away from the council table.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Torre said council\u2019s relationships with quasi-judicial boards need attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like we been stuck in the same conversation for 10 years, perhaps,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Another goal of council\u2019s in the next year is to leverage the city\u2019s housing development fund to finance deed-restricted projects.<\/p>\n

That could come in the form of a new tax that includes Pitkin County, which would have to be approved by voters.<\/p>\n

Councilwoman Rachel Richards said it\u2019s an equity issue when the city bears the burden of charging a sales tax to fund affordable housing and child care and the county does not.<\/p>\n

She said she\u2019d like to pursue a possible ballot question for 2020 that includes the county.<\/p>\n

Another way to capture more money for the affordable housing program is to charge developers higher mitigation fees, which is on the horizon.<\/p>\n

Also on tap in the next year for council is developing a long-range management plan to reduce waste in the highest impact landfill diversion areas.<\/p>\n

Council and city staff also will find capital funding sources that protect and improve river health and the stormwater system.<\/p>\n

Reducing energy use in commercial and multi-family buildings is a priority, as is finding ways to retain and attract small, local and unique businesses in the commercial core.<\/p>\n

Those goals, along with several others, were born from a two-day retreat<\/a> that council had in July after being sworn in the month prior.<\/p>\n

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

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

Aspen City Council on Monday gave the go-ahead on 13 priorities it wants to tackle in the next year, including examining the power some citizen boards have when making decisions that elected officials don\u2019t have the authority to change. One example is the city\u2019s all-citizen volunteer Historic Preservation Commission, which often is the final reviewer […]<\/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-2449611","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 21:56:52","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\/2449611","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=2449611"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2449623,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449611\/revisions\/2449623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2449611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2449611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2449611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}