Snowmass Town Council hesitant of affordable housing project scale as talks of new developments begin
Site Architects/Courtesy Image
Some members of the Snowmass Village Town Council want to see a scaled down design of the Draw Site workforce housing development, especially as the town approved a $12.5 million purchase of property at the Snowmass Center, which the town will use to develop workforce housing.
The Town Council approved the sketch plan for the Draw Site — the first of three steps in the planned unit development (PUD) process — at its Feb. 20 council meeting. But it passed with a stipulation that the town could explore different and smaller design options for the development during the current stage of the PUD process.
Council member Tom Fridstein asked town staff to develop one-, two-, and three-bedroom designs for the workforce housing development because he said the site is too constrained and should not fit the proposed 80 units. Housing Director Betsy Crum and other members of the design team presented three options to the Town Council on Monday, April 15, with a new option that was one structure with two towers to house all 80 units.
But Fridstein and other members of Town Council were disappointed that there wasn’t an option with fewer units and asked the design team to consider shaving off some units moving forward since the town is now in talks to develop affordable housing next to the Draw Site at the Snowmass Center.
“I agreed to the sketch plan because we put it could be one building, two buildings, or three buildings,” Fridstein said. “The idea was that one building could be smaller … and I still believe, as an architect with 50 years of experience, that I think this site is too demanding for 80 families living up there.”
The Town Council approved the purchase of the property at the Snowmass Center in its April 1 council meeting. The town could develop up to 120 units of affordable housing at the Snowmass Center, Town Manager Clint Kinney said during the Monday meeting.
“What I’m struggling with in this conversation tonight,” said Council member Britta Gustafson, “is we’re looking at this site as if we don’t have this other great option to consider next door, and I do wonder if we want to re-evaluate the master plan or discuss what’s the best use of this site compared to (the Snowmass Center) site.”
Crum told the council that a design team found that 80 units is a feasible approach for the Draw Site. In the 2021 housing master plan, which set a goal of adding 185 more workforce housing units to the town’s affordable housing stock, it was one of five sites identified as having the biggest potential for chipping away at the town’s goal of reaching those units.
She also told the council that downsizing the development would be too costly; the project is estimated to cost about $80 million, which the town is planning to pay for with its lodging and sales tax, state grants, and rental fees.
“I would argue that to go much less wouldn’t be that feasible, and it wouldn’t maximize that site for our workforce,” she said.
The project would also require a supermajority’s approval for a height variance. Town code requires a Town Council vote on any development proposed to be higher than 38 feet. The two towers are estimated to be about 66 feet tall.
Fridstein said as the design stands, he would not vote to approve the height variance.
Council members asked the design team to explore even small changes to the scale of the development, like 60 or 70 units, as it moves forward in the preliminary phase.
During the Monday meeting, the designers also showed new designs that addressed the steepness of the road leading up to the proposed development. Instead of the original winding road coming up from Kearns Road past Town Hall, they proposed a shorter, less steep and winding road that council members approved of.
The steepness of the road was one of the many concerns brought up during the sketch-plan phase of the PUD, including how emergency and transportation vehicles could access the units.
The April 1 approval of the Snowmass Center parcel purchase did not finalize the purchase but allowed Snowmass Center owner Eastwood Snowmass Investors to put together a conceptual plan for the redevelopment of the commercial property surrounding the residential property.
The town entered talks with Eastwood Snowmass Investors in January when the Snowmass Center went on the market.
“I do think (the Snowmass Center purchase) shouldn’t stop us from pushing forward on this, but I think we want to also be thinking about what’s going to happen over there and how those two can relate and what that looks like,” said Council member Alyssa Shenk.
