{"id":2458877,"date":"2020-05-27T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-27T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=326365"},"modified":"2020-05-27T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-27T11:00:00","slug":"planning-commission-begins-review-of-changes-to-next-snowmass-base-village-development-phase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/planning-commission-begins-review-of-changes-to-next-snowmass-base-village-development-phase\/","title":{"rendered":"Planning Commission begins review of changes to next Snowmass Base Village development phase"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Planning Commission began reviewing a minor amendment to phase three of the 10-year, $600 million Base Village planned use development (PUD) project last week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The amendment mainly focuses on creating a master development plan with guiding parameters for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/snowmass\/base-village-developers-anticipate-core-openings-plan-for-next-phase\/\">the last five Base Village and Viceroy Snowmass area buildings (10a, 10b, 11, 12 13b)<\/a>, along with a streamlined building- or site-specific approval process.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">According to Andy Gunion, managing partner for East West Partners in Snowmass, the amendment does not alter any critical components of the original PUD plan like building height and total square footage, but allows for reasonable design flexibility and for moving toward the full completion of Base Village in a more efficient way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThe overall goal of the amendment is to provide the town the certainty it wants on what we call the critical project attributes, like overall square footage, building height and employee housing ratios,\u201d Gunion explained to the Planning Commission. \u201cBut meanwhile it also provides a reasonable degree of design flexibility in terms of what gets put in these buildings and exactly how they are configured.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row at-donation at-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">On May 20, Planning Commission met virtually to review the Base Village PUD amendment application, its first meeting since the COVID-19 crisis began in March.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Both Gunion and Julie Ann Woods, town community development director, gave brief presentations on the requested changes to the original PUD for the five mixed-unit residential buildings, which include:<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText ListBullet\">Replacing existing \u201cexact\u201d unit counts, unit sizes and other absolute statistics with new minimum and maximum parameters (master development plan)<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText ListBullet\">Maximum limits would be established for things like total square footage and floor area, building height and setbacks, equivalent units and maximum average unit size<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText ListBullet\">Minimum limits would be established for open space, parking ratio, employee housing mitigation and minimum average unit size<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText ListBullet\">Allow for the potential of making Building 13B, which is planned adjacent to Viceroy Snowmass, a 185-unit hotel extension of the Viceroy<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText ListBullet\">Adjust lot lines so the \u201cvillage pool\u201d planned as part of Building 11 is more in the center of the Base Village development<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText ListBullet\">Eliminate excess parking requirements<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText ListBullet\">Extend vested rights to complete the full Base Village development another five years, giving developers until November 2029<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Over the past three years, Gunion explained that Snowmass Ventures \u2014 the name for the collaborative developer group made up of East West Partners, Aspen Skiing Co. and KSL Capital Partners that owns Base Village \u2014 has been focused on completing the \u201ccore\u201d of the village, which includes Limelight Snowmass, The Collective and both One Snowmass buildings; and \u201csolidifying the Viceroy\u201d as a premiere Snowmass luxury lodging option.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Now that the core is mostly finished and Viceroy facilities have been improved, Gunion said the developer team looks forward to this next development phase, setting the stage for the timely completion of an economically viable Base Village.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">However, to ensure this timely and viable completion, Gunion and his team feel there needs to be more flexibility in the PUD plan to allow for changes in market trends and buyer preferences, along with a more streamlined approach to making minor architectural and design changes if needed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">That\u2019s why the East West team is proposing an overarching master development plan and new real time, site-specific approval process. The plan would allow town staff to ensure each site or building aligns with the master plan parameters and council to review each building\u2019s architectural plan for approval before developers could start construction \u2014 saving work and time for developers, the town and the Planning Commission.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe\u2019d submit building by building, lot by lot and go through a review process by town staff for compliance within the master development plan before it goes onto Town Council,\u201d Gunion explained. He noted that there have already been six PUD amendments and more than 50 administrative modifications to the Base Village redevelopment over the years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThis allows for real time design response to changes in market preferences and to allow for a more informed build out so we can react to things and adjust rather than come back and do a full PUD amendment every time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">According to Woods, she and her staff started discussing this PUD amendment with Base Village developers about a year ago, and the application was submitted for town review in November.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Woods said the novel coronavirus pandemic delayed town staff\u2019s review process by a few months, and acknowledged that the current situation highlights why Base Village developers want more flexibility moving forward.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt can take up to a year to get through the amendment process and by the time you get through that process, the market may have changed,\u201d Woods said on May 26. \u201cFor the most part, people want to see Base Village move ahead and get done. \u2026 There will still be restrictions but if we can provide flexibility I think it would provide success for the whole community and that\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Planning Commission recognized the desire for this flexibility, too. However, some members expressed at the May 20 meeting concerns with not having a more specific build-out timeline, along with creating a wall effect along Wood Road with the new, reoriented buildings and not including the Planning Commission in the proposed site-specific approvals moving forward.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI\u2019m concerned that Planning Commission is not involved in the (site-specific) architectural review,\u201d said Planning Commissioner Jim Gustafson. \u201cWe have a broader range of expertise in reviewing architectural aspects so in general my thought is when it gets time to do an architectural review, it needs to run by the Planning Commission, not just Town Council.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">After a brief discussion, commissioners ultimately agreed that more time was needed to digest the extensive amendment application before any decision could be made.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Woods and the community development team will prepare a draft resolution for approval of the minor PUD amendment, which Planning Commission will review at its next meeting June 3.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Gunion also mentioned that Planning Commission will soon be presented with a minor amendment to the Woodrun PUD, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/snowmass\/base-village-developers-anticipate-core-openings-plan-for-next-phase\/\">which is for the proposed Fanny Hill townhomes project.<\/a> Developers hope to start on the Fanny Hill project as soon as this fall, followed by Building 11 in spring 2021.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\"><a href=\"mailto:mvincent@aspentimes.com\">mvincent@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/snowmass\/planning-commission-begins-review-of-changes-to-next-snowmass-base-village-development-phase\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Planning Commission began reviewing a minor amendment to phase three of the 10-year, $600 million Base Village planned use development (PUD) project last week. The amendment mainly focuses on creating a master development plan with guiding parameters for the last five Base Village and Viceroy Snowmass area buildings (10a, 10b, 11, 12 13b), along with [&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-2458877","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 14:51:07","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\/2458877","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=2458877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458877\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2458877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2458877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2458877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}