The three candidates running in the open primary for Pitkin County’s District 1 commissioner seat have ostensibly similar political values, but they diverge on a few notable points.
Each has local political experience and has lived and worked in the greater Aspen area for decades.
John Doyle is an artist who’s in his second term on the Aspen City Council.
Rob Ittner is a restaurateur who served a four-year term on the Board of County Commissioners ending in 2015.
Torre is a tennis instructor and production staffer at the Wheeler Opera House who’s served three terms as Aspen mayor and two as a city council member.
They are running to replace longtime incumbent Patti Clapper, who has been termed out of the District 1 seat.
The primary is an at-large election, so all Pitkin County voters get to vote, regardless of where they live in the county. Two of the three candidates will advance to the general election in November.
Aspen Public Radio asked the candidates to weigh in on a few topics of local interest.
Airport modernization
Torre wrote an op-ed published in the Aspen Daily News on June 8, criticizing the county’s handling of the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport modernization project.
The next day, Ittner penned a competing op-ed defending the county commissioners.
Torre’s concerns center on the expansion of the runway and allowing larger aircraft to land there.
“I'm all for a terminal rebuild, and I'm also for runway replacement, but we didn't need to expand there,” he said in an interview.
Torre said he looks at everything through an environmental lens, and that “growth control” is at the heart of his campaign.
“The airport was touted as an environmental move,” Torre said. “Maybe the terminal is going to get greened up a little bit, maybe some operations, but the overall footprint of the airport is not going greener.”
Ittner also said he uses an environmental lens, but argues that the airport project can be done in a way that preserves those values.
“It's not about bigger planes, it's about safety,” Ittner said. “I really hope that bigger planes don't come in, but some of these planes that are just a tiny bit bigger are much more efficient and much [quieter].”
If elected, Torre said he would focus on making the airport the best that it can be.
As for Doyle, he wants to “make sure that we're doing everything to make it the most environmentally-conscious airport in the country, if not the world.”
“I do think nanoparticles should be investigated closer,” Doyle said. “I think we need to be looking very closely at, how do we get people from the airport into town without putting them in cars.”
Climate change
Doyle said he got into politics after going to a climate march with his daughter and her commenting that a year later, nothing had changed.
“Every council meeting I appreciate the opportunity to talk about how dire the situation is,” Doyle said. “My other council members probably get tired of it, but I think complacency is what's slowing us down.”
He highlights transit as an area of focus.
“I've been advised to not be as vocal about this, but I love trains,” Doyle said. “I'm open to whatever better mass transit option is available. I'm not going to disparage any of the choices, and if it's just enhanced BRT, I'm okay with that too.”
Coming off a historically dry winter, he thinks that water is the most pressing issue facing Pitkin County.
“We only have a one to two day water supply for the city of Aspen. And with the stream flows that they are right now, I think we need to be taking a hard look at water storage,” Doyle said.
Doyle wants to see local water storage supplies increased, preferably uphill from the users to avoid pumps.
In contrast, Ittner said, “We're not going to snap our fingers and create more water. That doesn't happen.”
Ittner also talked about mitigating the impacts of transportation, and emphasized the value of making buildings and homes more energy efficient.
“When I was involved with the county, we started doing home reviews for people,” Ittner said. “So we put money towards looking at each and every home within the valley, and how it could be more environmentally friendly, using less energy.”
Torre said he was proud of the successes he’s had on climate in the past.
“Whether that's introducing the recycling program, banning the plastic bag, and forwarding the compost program that we have in place today,” Torre said.
He thinks forest health is the county’s primary climate concern, and would focus on pine beetles and wildfire prevention. And he said leaders should do whatever they can to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“What we're seeing in [the] changing climate right now is affecting not just our winter visitors and our love and appetite for skiing,” Torre said. “But we're also seeing it kind of degrade our water and our streams and our rivers, the fish, the wildlife, the plants.”
Housing
“I live in employee housing, so I am well aware of the benefits of employee housing,” Ittner said.
Ittner said he would work with the city, hospital and other employers to create more housing within urban growth boundaries, meaning areas that are zoned for development.
“We need to continue to find housing that is within the urban growth boundaries; I believe in that,” Ittner said. “I don't necessarily agree that we've got the perfect project at… the Philips project that's going on.”
County commissioners voted on June 11 to move ahead with affordable housing expansion plans for the Philips Mobile Home Park.
Torre was preemptively critical of that decision in his June 8 op-ed. He describes himself as a “slow growther.”
“And that's in all segments. I recognize that affordable housing is growth as well,” Torre said. “Where we put it, how we build it, and who we house are very important questions.”
The former mayor also wants to fix APCHA, the city and county’s shared affordable housing system.
“I think that there are regulation changes that need to be made,” Torre said. “We need to get it back to a community-supportive organization that is trusted and has transparency.”
Torre said the leading area of concern he’s heard during his campaign is issues with APCHA.
“APCHA is not something that can be fixed,” said Doyle. “It's a work in progress, and we will keep maintaining it to the best of our ability.”
Doyle said Aspen is looked up to in many ways. He said when he goes to conferences, other leaders ask about how the city has approached challenges like housing.
“People want to learn how we did things,” Doyle said. “And one of the biggest ones is housing, because that's the one that most people are struggling with across the state.”
Doyle thinks the county is generally on the right track.
“We're going to continue to build more units, although I don't think we can really build ourselves out of this problem,” Doyle said.
