The two referendums on the city of Aspen’s March 2025 municipal ballot asked voters to weigh in on their preferred next steps for the city’s entrance along Highway 82.
According to the final vote count, Aspen voters struck down Referendum 1 with 952 votes in favor of the ballot measure and 1,652 votes against it.
Referendum 1 asked whether or not to amend the city charter and require a 60% vote in order to sell or change the use of any parks and open spaces, which would have required more community consensus to change the highway’s layout.
A record of decision between the city of Aspen, Colorado Department of Transportation, and Federal Highway Administration in 1998 established a preferred realignment of Highway 82 at the entrance to Aspen that would cut through Marolt and Thomas open spaces.
The amendment would have required a larger margin of support for the city of Aspen to change how it uses those open spaces if it wants Highway 82 to bypass the existing S-curves on 7th Street.
Proponents of the referendum wanted decisions about the entrance to Aspen to be decided by more than a few votes.
Neil Siegel is a member of Our Parks Our Open Space, an issue committee supporting the referendum.
“How much do you value open space and property?” Siegel asked the audience of an event at Explore Booksellers on Feb. 18. “Is it worth more than 50%?”
Opponents said the rule change would have been undemocratic.
Referendum 2, however, passed with 1,369 votes in support and 1,276 opposed.
The ballot initiative now gives CDOT permission to use portions of Marolt and Thomas open spaces as identified in the 1998 record of decision or any future records of decision for new highway alignments.
Supporters argued that the preferred alternative will improve traffic and reduce greenhouse gas emissions while building another emergency evacuation route in case of wildfires.
Mike Maple is a member of Aspenites for Action, an issue committee supporting Referendum 2, and he emphasized the need for additional egress options in Aspen during an interview with Aspen Daily News columnists on Grassroots TV.
“My birthplace was Jasper, Alberta — half of which burned to the ground last year,” Maple said. “That is a community that didn’t have one two-lane road going out. It had four, and people still couldn’t get out.”
Opponents of the measure worried Referendum 2 would give CDOT too much authority over the open spaces.
CDOT, FHWA, and the city of Aspen would all have to agree to reopen the record of decision from 1998 to make significant changes to the preferred alternative.