Preserving or building around historic structures in Aspen is notoriously difficult. On Monday, the Historic Preservation Commission presented a new resolution to the city council to change the way the city incentivizes preserving old buildings.
The Historic Benefits code, which rewards preservation through fee waivers, hasn’t been updated in 30 years.
The review process for projects is long, and permitting requires developers jump through arguably too many hoops.
The Historic Preservation Committee (HPC) wants to simplify permitting and, if they approve of a developer’s project, they’ll streamline the process.
Amy Simon, a Historic Preservation officer, says history is what makes Aspen Aspen.
"We need to work together and not just lay a lot of restrictions and expectations on a small group of property owners," said Simon.
The city council and the HPC seemed to have conflicting priorities, however. Council insisted these developers still pay for affordable housing mitigation. The HPC was interested in waiving fees for those same developers.
Council will move forward with a revised version of the resolution on Nov. 13.