The city of Aspen is beginning a facilities master plan for the Aspen Golf Club campus to address aging and outdated facilities.
The plan will outline updates to the entire campus, including the clubhouse, tennis courts and Nordic ski facilities. The clubhouse was originally built in 2001 and no longer meets existing needs, Aspen Golf Manager Jim Pratt said.
“The facility is getting to the point where we need to reinvest in it,” Pratt said. “The volume of people — not just golfers, but Nordic skiers, restaurant users, tennis players, people just using the trails — the volume of users has dramatically increased since the building was originally built in 2001.”
The plan will address current inefficiencies, like expanding the size of the clubhouse’s restrooms and adding space for tournament operations, like a banquet room. Pratt said the club’s kitchen needs more storage space, and the trash facilities need to be relocated.
Aspen Golf Club also wants to find a way to make the tennis courts available year round.
The 18-hole golf course itself likely wouldn’t be modified as part of the master plan. But Pratt said the city is exploring the possibility of snowmaking infrastructure on the driving range for Nordic skiing.
“That, obviously, will influence what we do with the practice facilities for golf as well,” Pratt said. “So anything that is close to the clubhouse, practice facilities, the Nordic trail, anything that’s close to the building itself might be impacted, and that’s another thing that we’re trying to plan for and take a look at.”
The master plan will guide other planning efforts for the next 50 years, according to a city news release.
Survey responses are being accepted through March 31 to gather community input on the current facility. A town hall will be held on April 22 from 4-6 p.m. at the clubhouse to share initial findings.
After that, the city will begin designing the plan, reviewing and refining a draft, before presenting it to the Aspen City Council. A timeline for later steps of the master planning process has yet to be created.
Pratt said the goal is to design the facilities to serve the entire community.
“This is not geared toward one specific user group,” he said. “This is a collaborative effort between all user groups, tennis, Nordic, golf. We view this facility as a community hub, whether you park here and ride the bus into town, or use the trails, we’re trying to make this a community project, not just a user group project.”
The survey is available on the city’s Aspen Community Voice webpage.