By Brent Gardner-Smith
Aspen Times Staff Writer
November 14, 2001
The Aspen Planning and Zoning Commission breezed through its first review Tuesday of the final plans for a new
condominium hotel in downtown Aspen.
The meeting ended 20 minutes ahead of schedule after light questioning by board members and scant public comment.
The paucity of questions seemed to surprise both the P&Z members and the cluster of planners, architects and
lawyers that comprised most of the audience.
The next meeting on what is currently called the Hyatt Grand Aspen is scheduled for Dec. 4. At that meeting, more
questions are expected to be posed to the owners of the project, Four Peak Development, on the nuances of their
proposed timeshare plan.
Tuesday’s meeting was set up for the P&Z to review the physical characteristics of the project, which consists
of a 115,000-square-foot building. The timeshare project would be built on the site of the old Grand Aspen Hotel
behind the ice rink across from Rubey Park. The Grand Aspen was torn down this summer.
Both the size and scale of the building are already approved, so the board was not expected to redesign the building.
But two board members still said it was too imposing.
“It is going to be a pretty massive structure,” said P&Z Chair Jasmine Tygre.
She noted that she had supported the size of the building when it was proposed as a 150-room hotel that included
some public spaces.
Now the project is being pitched as a 51-unit, fractional-ownership project with units sold in 1/20th intervals,
where owners buy one week of the year in a specific unit and get 10 days throughout the year in any available unit.
While the project will still feel in many ways like a hotel, the current plan now lacks some hotel amenities such
as meeting rooms and a restaurant.
But, Tygre said, “I’m over it.”
Board member Robert Blaich echoed Tygre’s comments and said he thought people would be surprised about how big
the building is.
“I think the only thing the building lacks is a moat and a drawbridge,” Blaich said.
The front of the red-brick, four-story building is to be 45 feet tall, a height that required a 16-foot variance
from city regulations. The building, however, would be 20 feet lower than the highest point of the neighboring
St. Regis hotel.
The most substantial issue raised Tuesday was whether nine proposed employee housing units at the back of the Hyatt
would be livable.
“Staff is concerned with the amount of natural light available to the AH (affordable housing) units which are completely
sub-grade along the back wall of the structure,” wrote staff planner Fred Jarman. “... These units will receive
very little natural light, which significantly reduces the livability of the units.”
But the P&Z members seemed mollified by the comments of Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Board member Marsha Goshorn,
who said that the housing board felt that units were indeed livable and liked the fact that they were being provided
on site. The studios are expected to be rented to hotel employees.
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