Snowmass Condominium Associations Ask Town To Abandon Nearby Workforce Housing Plans

“In addition to these concerns, the associations assert that the increased traffic on Carriage Way would impact the quality of life of visitors and residents, reduce property values in the Upper Village, and create several years of environmental and community disturbance while construction progressions,” the letter said.

The lots are owned by the town and not the condo associations, which all sit adjacent to the parking lots. They provide parking to guests in the condos and nearby hotels, and to employees providing services to those properties, the condo associations argued. 

The condo associations, represented by attorneys Andrew Atkins and Haley Carmer, argue the town cannot change the use, number, access, or proximity of the upper parking lots without their consent. They cited a 1967 town declaration, a 1978 agreement between the town and what was at the time the Snowmass Resort Association, and a 2006 group sales agreement between the town and the Snowmass Village Resort Association (the successor to the Snowmass Resort Association).

The 1967 West Village general declaration obligated the Snowmass Resort Association to maintain parking areas and provided property owners and their guests a right of access to and use of the parking areas. The 1978 agreement transferred lots 1-13 to the town and required that “the land (the town) received from SRA would continue to be used as it had been in the past, including for parking lots, and that the parking lots would not be closed or changed in character ‘unless mutually agreed upon,'” according to the condo associations’ letter.

The 2006 group sales agreement obligated the town to provide “permanent access” to parking to properties adjacent to the parking lots. Under the agreement, the town also said it would notify all adjacent property owners of any proposed development that would change the current use of the lots, the associations said.

Development has not started on the proposed 78 housing units on lots 10-12, but the site was identified as one of the highest suitable sites in town to use for workforce housing because of its proximity to the mall and the grading infrastructure already in place, according to the housing master plan. It would cost about $73.5 million to develop, according to the master plan, the most expensive of the five proposed development sites.

“The upper lots, although ranked highest in the objective assessment, also remain one of the more controversial sites in this master housing plan,” the town’s plan states. “The use of day-skier parking is a high commodity, particularly with lot 12 that has direct skier access to the hill.”

The plan proposes keeping public parking below the residential building and would be altered in favor of angled parking to maximize spots.

According to the 2006 group sales agreement, the condo associations argue, if a majority of adjacent owners opposed a proposed development on the lots, it would require three-fourths of the Town Council to approve moving forward with the development.

The housing master plan is a component of the town’s comprehensive plan, which was recommended for adoption by the planning commission and formally adopted by the Town Council. Any changes to the housing master plan or the comprehensive plan would take formal action of at least both bodies, Town Manager Clint Kinney said. 

“We’re going to take the time and communicate with (the condo associations) to better understand their concerns,” Kinney said. “From what we understand today, they’re requesting a change to the comprehensive plan and the master plan, and there’s certainly a process to go through that.”

The condo associations will meet with town staff this week to discuss their concerns further. Dave Jacobsen, president of the Laurelwood board of directors, said the condo associations came together to address the town after continually expressing concern about the developments since the housing master plan was first being discussed.

“We need employee housing, no one’s denying that, but not in the parking lot of Fanny Hill,” Jacobsen said. “This is about what it would do to the local environment. That road and septic and water (systems) can’t handle it, and it’s about what it would do to all our guests, which are our bread and butter.”

The town is currently going through a planned unit development (PUD) process for another development from the housing master plan, the Draw Site, which would build 80 units of workforce housing on a parcel of land directly northwest of Snowmass Town Hall. The Town Council also recently discussed changing the land use development code for workforce housing developments to expedite the development process.