Mayoral candidates Rachel Richards and Katy Frisch faced off during Squirm Night Wednesday, diverging on their priorities if they were chosen to lead Aspen City Council.
The entrance to Aspen dominated the evening — since the campaign began Richards and Frisch have taken hard opposing stances on the issue and the two referendums about the entrance. The reemergence of the entrance to Aspen debate was one of the driving forces in Richards decision to jump back into public office, and she was part of the group that gathered signatures to place Referendum 2 on the March ballot.
Richards supports realigning Highway 82 over portions of the Marolt and Thomas open spaces, a solution identified in a 1998 record of decision as the best path forward for the entrance to Aspen. She chose to run for mayor especially because she felt like the city council dragged its feet on prioritizing the entrance to Aspen project.
“(Council) wasted the opportunity to get the (President Joe) Biden Infrastructure Jobs Act money,” Richards said. “I think it’s important to take the preferred alternative into a reevaluation phase, which would take about six months, based on Jacobs Engineering, and the data we gather from that … will allow us then to really enter an EIS with good knowledge.”
Referendum 2 asks voters to allow the Colorado Department of Transportation to use portions of the Marolt and Thomas open spaces identified in the 1998 ROD, or in any other RODs, for new highway alignments.
Frisch opposes Referendum 2, and supports prioritizing rebuilding the aging Castle Creek Bridge with a three-lane replacement. She supports the city’s efforts to enter into development of a new environmental impact statement, which the city council directed staff to do in the fall.
“We have the ability to re-engineer the whole entrance, why in the world are we using solutions that we talked about 40 years ago,” Frisch said.
The city is currently gathering information to reopen a new environmental impact statement. It will need final approval from CDOT and the Federal Highway Administration before it moves forward with a new evaluation process for the entrance to Aspen.
Richards opposes Referendum 1, which asks voters to increase the vote threshold required to change city-owned parks and open space from a simple majority to 60%. Frisch has not taken a stance on it — she said she would support either outcome.
Both candidates said they supported the Lumberyard affordable housing development, a 300-unit affordable housing project years in the making that the city began site prep on in November. But both suggested that, moving forward, the city needs to keep in mind the rising price tag. Cost estimates released in September 2023 show the project could cost between $416 million to $753 million.
Frisch said the city should value engineer the upcoming phases to be more cost effective. The city council is in the process of choosing a developer for vertical development of the up to 300 units of affordable housing.
Richards wants to prioritize working with regional partners throughout the development as it moves into the next phases of development. She wants the housing to be available for year-round employees.
Both Frisch and Richards also support the idea to develop the Armory Hall building into a community gathering space, but want the plans to focus on serving populations like teenagers and seniors who lack gathering spaces in town.
“I think it’s very critical that we develop the Armory in a way that enables community usage, so it’s not a giant beer hall,” Frisch said.
Richards said the city should prioritize seeking private fundraising to fund the Armory. She also said the city should look into using some city real estate transfer tax revenue to fund the project for some limited capital grants.
At the end of the debate, each candidate asked one question of one another. Frisch asked Richards why she “lost faith in our community to handle its own decisions,” referencing Referendum 2 that Richards backed. Frisch argued the referendum cedes control to CDOT and doesn’t allow future citizen votes on the bridge.
“Frankly, I do trust the voters, and that’s why I am opposed to Referendum 1, which would create a super minority rather than a simple 50% on open space issues,” Richards said in response. “I think this is the vote to say we want to move forward, we want to start being able to get in line for federal money and state money, that we should not be self funding it, that we want to send a signal to the new council that it’s time to move forward and stop kicking this can down the road.”
Richards asked Frisch if she supported a previous ballot measure that renewed a half-cent tax to support city open space when the measure was on the ballot. Frisch said she did not remember the measure and was in the middle of her husband Adam Frisch’s congressional campaign, but she elaborated on her position on Referendums 1 and 2.
“I have not come out in support of Referendum 1 publicly, privately, at all,” Frisch said. “So I am talking about the bridge, if the community decides that it wants a supermajority, over 60% vote of open space, I’ll support it. If they decide they don’t, I won’t support it … I will listen to the will of the voters as mayor.”
Election Day is March 4. In-person voting is available at Aspen City Hall until 7 p.m. on Election Day. Ballots can be returned to the ballot box at city hall. They should not be returned to the ballot box outside of the Pitkin County administrative offices.
