Five candidates are running for two spots on the Snowmass Village Town Council.
Britta Gustafson and Susan Marolt are the incumbents. Both have lived in Snowmass Village for over 30 years and been on the council for the past four-year term. Gustafson is the Marketing & Events Manager at Challenge Aspen and Marolt owns accounting firm Marolt LLP.
The three challengers candidates are also longtime Roaring Fork Valley residents. Thea Khan-Farooqi is a retired surgeon and current airport employee who has lived in the upper valley for the past decade. Brian McNellis served as senior planner for the Town of Snowmass Village for about a decade. Katie McKirahan has lived in Snowmass for two decades and is the owner and broker of KLM Real Estate.
Aspen Public Radio surveyed the candidates over email to see where they stand on development, transit and sustainability. Select quotes have been pulled from their written responses to the survey.
The top two vote-getters out of the five candidates will gain seats on Snowmass Village’s council.
Election Day is Nov. 3.
Development
One of the most common — and most closely watched — responsibilities of the town council is approving housing and developments.
Incumbent Susan Marolt said she thinks the priority should be affordable workforce housing.
“We should also consider whether our housing is available for a variety of professions that are necessary for our community, all of this while considering the impact of the housing on our community environmentally and aesthetically,” she said.
Thea Khan-Farooqi said she would prioritize developers that understand the community and projects that provide “long term livability,” not just “housing for housing’s sake.”
Incumbent Britta Gustafson noted that there’s not much room to keep developing, with most of the available square footage in Snowmass Village already full, according to a 2017 analysis.
“Every remaining project must count,” she said. “Any redevelopment or major public investment must ensure that locally owned businesses are not unnecessarily displaced or treated as an afterthought.”
Brian McNellis had several ideas for how to improve the already existing housing stock to make it more affordable, including a capital improvements fund to help HOAs in deed-restricted neighborhoods pay for major maintenance projects. He also suggested creating more ownership opportunities for local families through deed-restricted housing.
“Homeownership can provide workforce stability and give local residents a lasting stake in the community,” McNellis said.
For Katie McKirahan, it’s a priority to consider building material.
“We are seeing a lot of issues 46 years later on Creekside and Mountain View projects,” she said. “We should build something more quality now so future maintenance will be less.”
She’s also strongly in favor of a proposed Ritz-Carlton development, which is currently under review.
“The project is really going to elevate the town with another beautiful place to stay and bring a lot of jobs,” McKirahan said.
Sustainability
All five candidates wrote that they see sustainability as essential to the town’s longevity.
McNellis and Gustafson both emphasized public transit as a key way to reduce emissions.
“We should continue investing in high-quality public transit to reduce dependence on single-occupancy vehicles, lower transportation-related emissions, and strengthen the long-term resilience of our resort economy,” McNellis said.
Marolt said fire mitigation has been a focus for the town lately, and it should stay that way. She wants the town to look at where it can decrease vegetation to reduce fire risk.
“We must continue this work and achieve effective mitigation while retaining as much of the beauty and natural environment around Snowmass Village as we can,” she said. “It is a balance.”
McKirahan said water use is top of mind and suggested moving toward sustainable power sources.
Khan-Farooqi said ideally, every new development would incorporate solar or geothermal energy.
“All of these things are expensive so I realize that compromises would need to be made,” she said. “However, the more we can prepare now the better positioned we will be as a community for the future.”
Khan-Farooqi also wants to bring back some kind of municipal composting system.
Transit
The candidates are split on how to improve public transit, if at all.
The town council has been considering constructing a new transit center for decades, but plans remain up in the air.
McKirahan is not convinced the project, which would cost an estimated $40 million, is worth investing in.
“The money will have to come from some of our other projects,” she said. “It’s going to take some more information before we can really say the need or desire of the residents for a new transit center.”
Khan-Farooqi did not comment specifically on the transit center, but said public transit investment would not be a priority for her.
“I’m not sure we have the population needed to support the public transportation infrastructure we would need to be able to make the community less reliant on cars and I don’t think it’s practical at this point,” she said.
Gustafson and McNellis were more supportive of the project, with a few stipulations.
McNellis said he supports the most recent versions of the plan, but thinks the decades of back-and-forth have been a misstep.
“The Transit Center project, unfortunately, has experienced significant management challenges, contributing to the loss of millions of dollars in potential grant funding and other financial opportunities,” he said. “We need to understand how those failures occurred, apply those lessons, and establish stronger oversight and accountability to ensure they are not repeated.”
Gustafson said most stakeholders she’s spoken to are in favor of the current proposal, and that she is too, provided it is in line with the town’s character and doesn’t displace any small businesses on the mall. She added that she’s mindful of residents’ concerns about construction impacts.
“I have a daughter who is about to turn 18, and there has been a crane on the horizon for her entire childhood,” she said. “I don’t want that to continue to be the experience of those who live in our small town … At the same time, we need to maintain and, where necessary, improve our Town’s [infrastructure]."
Marolt is more focused on improving the current Snowmass Village Mall bus stop, including providing restrooms, adding another bus bay and updating pedestrian features. The transit center would be the “next step,” she said, adding that the council should continue to evaluate the project’s cost and funding.
Find more information about the upcoming election in Aspen Public Radio’s 2026 Midterm Election Guide.
