Lift 1A / Kiss Your Sister
January 15, 2009 Aspen: The town with 2500 voters, 5000 residents and 100,000 opinions.
Aspen Spin stepped off the party train for one night to attend the "special" City Council meeting regarding the Lift 1A development controversy. Political commentary is not normally our milieu, but we are concerned with the ongoing QUALITY of LIFE in Aspen.
W;)
Lift 1A on the hot seat.e're totally against the COWOP approved plan to build approximately 300,000 square feet at Lift 1A. City Council's stalemated vote of 2-2 will put the fate of the project in the hands of Aspen's voters in May. Remember one thing when you send in your absentee ballot from Mexico, this project is all about the Benjamins, not quality of life.
In our opinion the chief negative of the current plan is the MASSIVE SCALE proposed. To clarify, we're not against growth or progress or community improvements. We are against GREED, TRAFFIC, NOISE POLLUTION, a 500 CAR GARAGE, and more FRACTIONALIZATION. The SUPER-SIZED proposal that developers claim they "need" to make their project "a go" seems ill conceived, overly complex and waaaaaaaaay to big for the 8 acre site. Is there even a real market demand for such a project? In 2009, the answer is no. Will the demand be there in 2012----maybe, who knows? Can they even get financing for such an ambitious project---that too is up for speculation, but it won't be easy. There are a lot of unanswered questions.
We've all borne witness to some HUMONGOUS developments around the Valley.
Base Village So huge it blocks the sun,demand has dried up, completion on hold.
Stage 3 Partially complete and on-hold, nice skeleton on Main St.
RLN About a year behind schedule, lawsuits galore, a visual eyesore.
LimeLight Moderately priced rooms w/ reasonable scale. Seems to work.
Highway 82 The most expensive bus lane in history.
Whole Foods Gigantic hole in the ground, maybe it will get done someday.
Ute Ave Home Have you seen the carnage to the Mountain over there?
Highlands The Dark Village.
Hyatt Seems to fit in. Better than the Continental Inn.
Aspen doesn't need a project like the 300,000 sq ft. one that is currently proposed at Lift 1A. We need tastefully designed "lodges" with reasonable density, moderate heights and preservation of open space. Maybe Aspen needs "hot beds", but please don't allow another edifice to greed to be erected at the base of Lift 1A.
You decide for yourself. We vote no!!
Reader Comments (2)
yeah, thats how i feel!!
Disagree totally. Base Village is the best thing to happen to Snowmass in years. The revitalization of the 1A area will bring new skiing opportunities and actually help the small lodges in the Shadow Mountain area. Look at Aspen Street now and tell me if it is really worthy of a first class resort. If you care about the resort, this project is a no-brainer. If you are filled with selfish nostalgia for some period in Aspen's past, then you might want to oppose it.