THE OTHER WHITE SHIRTS

Aspen Growth Moratorium Clamps Down on Infill

By David Frey, 4-26-06

While white shirt-wearing activists have been taking to the street around the country calling for immigrant rights, in Aspen, a different brigade of White Shirts has hit town.

These folks are wearing “We (Heart) Aspen” T-shirts, like those old “I (Heart) NY” shirts, and calling for slow growth in town and protection of some of the town’s historic, or kind of historic, buildings that could meet the wrecking ball.

On Tuesday, they won a bit of a victory when City Council declared a six-month moratorium on new development applications. That came on top of a recent action by Pitkin County commissioners to toughen up the county’s already tough land-use codes.

"There is an emergency set into motion by big entities that are not capable of love, such as limited liability companies, offshore trusts,” said Pitkin County Commissioner Mick Ireland, who’s been known to don a white shirt himself, as quoted by the Aspen Daily News.

“It's turning Aspen into an empty Intrawest village," Ireland said, referring to the ski resort-building corporation. "If you don't do this, you will be forced to process applications under the old rules."

The City Council agreed, with the exception of Mayor Helen Klanderud, who said she saw no emergency.

The moratorium arose amid concerns for the city’s infill regulations. Such regulations are beloved by New Urbanism devotees for encouraging growth inside city limits and discouraging sprawl. But in Aspen, residents complain that they’ve given rise to a constant state of being under construction while older buildings are scraped and replaced with fancy new ones.

The goal of infill, opponents say, was more affordable housing and locally-owned businesses. The reality has been more pricey homes and businesses that locals can’t afford.

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