{"id":2452337,"date":"2019-12-17T22:40:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T05:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/temporary-tent-on-aspen-restaurant-gets-another-year-of-life\/"},"modified":"2019-12-17T22:40:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T05:40:00","slug":"temporary-tent-on-aspen-restaurant-gets-another-year-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/temporary-tent-on-aspen-restaurant-gets-another-year-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Temporary tent on Aspen restaurant gets another year of life"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
For the sixth time, the proprietor of Mr. Grey received approval from Aspen City Council to have a temporary canvas tent around the outdoor seating of the restaurant.<\/strong>
Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

An Aspen restaurateur has been allowed an exception to a rule that\u2019s designed to prevent inappropriate structures in the downtown historic district.<\/p>\n

Aspen City Council on Tuesday granted a temporary use permit to Ryan Chadwick, owner of Mr. Grey Aspen<\/a>, formerly The Grey Lady, so that he can cover his patio trellis with a plastic canvas tent during the winter season, and add just less than 800 square feet to the restaurant.<\/p>\n

Council\u2019s decision goes against the city\u2019s commercial design standards, which were written to reflect the community\u2019s desire to \u201cgenerally prohibit the temporary use of fabric or tent-like enclosures,\u201d according to Jen Phelan, a longtime planner in the city\u2019s Community Development Department.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a very prominent location in the (commercial core historic district) and continues to serve as precedent for the many other establishments that may desire this type of \u2018temporary\u2019 structure over pedestrian amenity spaces,\u201d she wrote in a memo<\/a> to council recommending denial. \u201cStaff finds the structure is out of character with the historic district and does not wish to encourage structures constructed of such impermanent materials for such a length of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The temporary use approval, which has been granted several times in various degrees of length, goes from Dec. 18 through March 31.<\/p>\n

Chadwick will likely not be asking again since the building, located on the Mill Street pedestrian mall, is planned to be razed and rebuilt by owner Mark Hunt next year.<\/p>\n

Councilwoman Rachel Richards agreed that the tent sets a precedent that other restaurants may want in the future but because it\u2019s only for another year, she agreed to it \u2014 with a condition: that Chadwick host a winter market on Saturday and Sundays for area artists and growers.<\/p>\n

She also said the market, created prior to this year, appears to be a \u201cwhitewash\u201d for extra floor area.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistoric standards should be applied across the board,\u201d she said. \u201cWho knows if this is temporary forever, but for one year I am not going to drop the ax.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s application is the sixth annual request for covering the trellis.<\/p>\n

Chadwick noted that each time he has to pay the $1,300 permit fee application and almost $5,000 in mitigation for the covered area.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to come here and ask for this,\u201d he said, adding if he didn\u2019t cover the seating area it would just pile up with snow and be an eyesore in the middle of downtown. \u201cHopefully this is the last time I have to ask for this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chadwick has requested and received temporary use approval for the tent during the 2014-15 winter season, the 2015-16 holiday season, the 2017-18 winter season and now the 2019-20 winter season.<\/p>\n

It was in January 2015 that council was clear that it was a one-time approval and Chadwick should not return to renew the request, according to Phelan.<\/p>\n

In October of that year, council denied the request to erect the tent for the duration of the winter season. Council was concerned with the tent\u2019s use of plastic and canvas materials and questioned the temporary nature of a structure that kept reappearing seasonally, according to Phelan.<\/p>\n

But then in December, elected officials granted an 11-day temporary use approval.<\/p>\n

And then in December 2016, council granted a 14-day, temporary use approval.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s code allows council to grant temporary use approval for up to 180 consecutive days within a calendar year, for no more than 10 years.<\/p>\n

Linda Manning, former Aspen city clerk whose last day was Tuesday, spoke during public comment in favor of Chadwick\u2019s proposal, noting that other establishments like the St. Regis and the Hotel Jerome have received multi-year temporary use permits for outdoor tents.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy is he the only local person who has to do this?\u201d she said. \u201cIf he can get an extra 40 seats that\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n

City officials countered that they can\u2019t be seen from the public rights of way like at Mr. Grey.<\/p>\n

Others spoke in favor of the winter market, including Aspen resident Patti Clapper who is a Pitkin County commissioner and said agricultural products grown on government open space could be made available at the winter market.<\/p>\n

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

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

For the sixth time, the proprietor of Mr. Grey received approval from Aspen City Council to have a temporary canvas tent around the outdoor seating of the restaurant.Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times An Aspen restaurateur has been allowed an exception to a rule that\u2019s designed to prevent inappropriate structures in the downtown historic district. Aspen City […]<\/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":["post-2452337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 01:47:16","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\/2452337","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=2452337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}