PRESS RELEASE
Final review process begins for Lumberyard affordable housing project
Public hearings begin this week to review development application
Contacts:
Chris Everson, City of Aspen Affordable Housing Project Manager, 970-429-1834, chris.everson@aspen.gov
Carolyn Sackariason, City of Aspen Communications Coordinator, 970-319-2791, Carolyn.sackariason@aspen.gov
Aspen, Colo. - March 20, 2023 – The final public review process for the City of Aspen’s Lumberyard development application begins this week.
Aspen City Council last fall directed staff to submit the Lumberyard affordable housing development application with 277 units and 467 bedrooms to the City’s Community Development Department, which deemed the application complete on Dec. 6, 2022.
The first public hearing to review the land use application is in front of the City’s Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday, March 21 at 4:30 p.m. at 130 S. Galena Street. After a thorough review, P&Z will make a recommendation via resolution to Aspen City Council, which will hold public hearings later this spring.
The City-owned Lumberyard development site is 11.3 acres and is located adjacent to the Airport Business Center. The City purchased the land over the course of several years with the intent to build deed-restricted units to address the affordable housing crisis in the upper valley.
The development application comes after four years of public outreach, community engagement and City Council work sessions to determine conceptual and schematic designs for the project.
Since 2019, the City has conducted several rounds of outreach, including stakeholder meetings, pop-up events, surveys, community open houses, networking, online interactions, emails, flyers and other engagement tools in which hundreds of people participated.
“The design of the buildings and everything about this project is underpinned by community outreach,” said Chris Everson, the City’s Affordable Housing Project Manager. “We listened to the community and brought that feedback to City Council. Council prioritized to have as many units as it could responsibly fit on the site while incorporating amenities and priorities that were most important to the public.”
The planned development includes three, 100% accessible four-story buildings that will be certified as sustainable, with solar panel rooftops and green building techniques that will result in a 75% energy use offset. Other amenities include underground and surface parking, communal spaces for residents, new public streets, pedestrian and bike trails, and improved access off Highway 82.
“We have spent considerable time getting this project to where it needed to be based on public feedback and we arrived at this place through a well thought out process that looked at our values and we made tradeoffs to address the community’s priorities,” Aspen Mayor Torre said. “I look forward to hearing more input during the public hearing process.”
If approved, the City will begin construction of infrastructure in 2024 and will then seek competitive public private partnership proposals from developers for financing, construction, and long-term operation of the housing facilities.
For more information, go to https://www.aspencommunityvoice.com/lumberyard
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