Pitkin County leaders have approved a visionary document that will guide staff decisions and policy priorities for the next 25 years.
The advisory document touches on Pitkin County’s aspirations for affordability, limiting climate impacts, preserving rural life and balancing the region’s economy.
Freelance reporter Kaya Williams spoke to Aspen Public Radio’s Sage Smiley about the highlights of Pitkin County’s vision for the coming decades, and how residents may see the updated priorities play out in their daily lives. Williams’ reporting was originally published in the Aspen Daily News.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Sage Smiley: What does Pitkin County envision for itself 25, I guess 24, years in the future, in 2050?
Kaya Williams: The vision for this really has to do with some core values that we've seen come up in a lot of Pitkin County discussions. That has to do with development and growth and climate change, so stuff like residential home size they've found has a correlation to climate impacts, and you see that in the comprehensive plan. These ideas that, “How can we incentivize smaller homes and restrict these mega-mansions in the interest of climate impacts?” There's also some themes about a balanced economy and quality of life. Really, just trying to make sure that every Pitkin County resident has a nice time living in Pitkin County.
Smiley: How does a plan like this factor into county or even municipal governance? Where does it fit in this machine that is Pitkin County?
Williams: Well, the core thing here is that this is an advisory document, so it's going to guide county commissioners. It's going to guide county staff as they work through land use code changes, building code changes, energy code changes.
The code is really the rules that people have to follow. But this comprehensive plan establishes the philosophy and the direction that they want to go with that more nitty-gritty code language.
This is really for Pitkin County. There are a lot of other planning documents in the region. There's the Aspen Area Community Plan. There's ones for different neighborhoods and communities. Those will still play a role in land use thinking and decision-making.
Smiley: How does a county go about developing a document like this? Where does it pull from to say “This is what our vision is for the next 25 years?”
Williams: It has been a very long process and one that involves committees. What really kicked off sort of the thinking here was the Citizen Growth Advisory Committee (CGAC), and they all got together and thought about these big ideas like intensity of development and changes in our county economy, and how is growth manifesting in Pitkin County, and what can and should we do about it? Some of the recommendations of that Citizen Growth Advisory Committee have already resulted in changes to the Pitkin County Code. Restrictions on home size, updates to the energy code. And a lot of their philosophy became the framework to build this Vision 2050 comprehensive plan.
There was also a Vision 2050 work group. There's a little bit of overlap between that and the Citizen Growth Advisory Committee, and a lot of Pitkin County staff worked on this. Then the Planning and Zoning Commission spent so many meetings going through this, fine-tuning all the nitty-gritty language before it got to the County Commissioners to actually approve it and say, “This is our comp plan now.”
Smiley: This isn't Pitkin County's first comprehensive plan. So, how does this one differ from the previous iteration, or what's developed, or grown, or been further emphasized in this new plan?
Williams: You're really right. The first comprehensive plan that we had was in 2003. [That] got an update in 2023, but if you've lived here for any period of time, you know that a lot has changed since 2003. Sometimes I feel like the more things change, the more they stay the same. There's still some angst about residential growth and development. We've seen that going back to the 70s and even earlier, but this plan really looks at it in the present era and factors in sort of new information that we have, data about the way that large homes generate more employees or have a different scale of environmental impact than a smaller house.
That sort of information and these white papers and studies helped inform this new plan, and also think about some ideas that have been in the zeitgeist. Just a little tidbit, for instance, there's an item in this comprehensive plan about looking into nanoparticles and lobbying for the bigger government organizations, like the state and federal governments, to develop regulations for nanoparticles. That's been a very hot-button issue in airport conversations and air pollution conversations just in the last couple of years.
Smiley: You mentioned all these other plans that exist within Pitkin County. What happens if this Vision 2050 conflicts with one of the other plans? Is that going to be a problem for the communities in this region?
Williams: Well, problem, I think, probably depends on who you ask. But this comprehensive plan does recognize that there may be circumstances in which it conflicts with one of these neighborhood or caucus master plans. There's more than a dozen of them, so there's a lot to get into.
Some people that are representatives of these caucuses, or part of the caucuses, have been concerned about this language that says, “The comp plan may take priority over a caucus master plan.” “May” is discretionary, but they don't love that “take priority” language nonetheless. And there's been some concern about whether that runs counter to even Pitkin County's home rule charter, which is basically the rules that are the foundation of our county.
But when county commissioners asked the county attorney about that during this approval process, the county attorney said that he believes the comprehensive plan actually strengthens the role of these caucuses and master plans because they can be factored into more decisions than the home rule charter originally considered. So you know that “problem” question, it really will come down to the caucuses themselves, and how they feel about those conflicts when they arise.
Smiley: You mention that we have already seen some elements of this plan implemented in Pitkin County. What might Pitkin County residents see next? Where is this plan going to be most visible in the coming weeks, months, years?
Williams: Big things are going to be updates to land use, building, and energy codes. We see in the comprehensive plan this timeline that suggests we're going to start seeing those code changes in 2026, which is this year, and 2027, which is next year.
There is this appendix to the comp plan called an implementation matrix, and it has all of these different ways, more than 100 different ways, that this comprehensive plan could turn into really tangible action. But that matrix is for information only; it's not like a thing that dictates, “By June of 2027 we better have this thing done.” And some of the stuff in that matrix, to your point, has already been achieved. Again, this is a plan that goes all the way to 2050, so some stuff might be a while before we see it take effect.
Smiley: Well, thank you very much for sharing your reporting with us.
Williams: Thanks, Sage.
Read Kaya Williams’ reporting on Pitkin County’s Vision 2050 here.
