Aspen city officials met behind closed doors on Monday to position their stance on the future of the old power house and a potential legal fight with neighbors. Aspen Public Radio’s Carolyn Sackariason reports.
City Council in March selected a proposal that includes Aspen Brewery, Channel 82, plus business incubator space. The 7,200-square-foot is building located along the banks of the Roaring Fork River — off Mill Street. The group was one of four finalists to take over the city-owned property; the others were nonprofits.
But residents in nearby Oklahoma Flats are not OK with council’s pick.
The land is currently defined as residential and needs to be converted to allow a brew pub, broadcasting studio and offices. City officials are considering amending what’s called a “planned development overlay” on the parcel. It’s a way to allow those new activities with specifics about operating hours and decibel levels.
Bill Budinger is a homeowner in the area and spokesman for others in the neighborhood. He says that tailored approach is not enough to appease them and it will create a “firestorm” if it happens.
“Because if the city can rezone or PUD or whatever, commercialize residential property, what that means is some developer can come in, buy a bunch of residential property and basically demand that the city do the same thing,” he says.
Tweaking what’s allowed — instead of rezoning completely — is meant to address that concern. The building used to be Aspen’s power plant, then was an art museum and now is a temporary home for the Pitkin County Library. Barry Crook is an assistant city manager.
“It needs to be rezoned for what it is and what it has been for decades but the neighbors don’t like that,” he says. “It’s not residential and has not been residential that I know of ever but they don’t want us to rezone it public. It’s a sticking point with them and there is no reason to fall on a sword with it.”
As city officials began hashing out lease details with the new tenants earlier this year, they also were talking with neighbors. As neighborhood advocate, Budinger says he has spoken with Duncan Clauss, owner of the brewery. But no operations agreement on parking or noise has been reached. It’s the selling of alcohol on a daily basis that concerns residents and how can any restriction be enforced? Budinger questions.
“The neighborhood issue, of course, has got to do with the fact that Oklahoma Flats is a dead end so people driving drunk around here … we would have a problem with the art museum once a year and the art museum wound up, very graciously, paying for the damage that got done,” he says. “But that’s once a year. And the idea that this would happen all of the time, that is intolerable.”
Efforts to reach Clauss for comment were unsuccessful.
Numerous special events are planned for the property. Crook says the city is working on addressing neighbors concerns about parking, hours and noise.
“They intend to do like a sound test. Set up loud speakers that would broadcast certain decibel levels and then go over into Oklahoma Flats and ‘can you hear it now, can you hear it now?’ See what that decibel level is and we’ try to incorporate some of those limitations into the operating agreement,” he says.
Elected officials and city administrators met in executive session to discuss the issue Monday. Before that meeting, Crook said a lease and operations agreement will be drafted by mid-January.
Budinger says the neighborhood will probably sue if a lease is signed.
Carolyn Sackariason, Aspen Public Radio news.