The future Aspen City Hall building is excluded from the emergency moratorium on development applications passed last week.
The moratorium applies to property zoned as commercial core, neighborhood commercial, Industrial and mixed use. A map shows most of downtown and main street Aspen under the freeze, but a blank space appears between Galena and Hunter streets where a 50,000 square foot rebuild of city hall is proposed.
During the City Council’s special meeting regarding Ordinance 7 last week, a member of the public questioned the fairness of the city leaving itself out of the new development restrictions. Council member Adam Frisch replied that he saw no reason to include the city property because as the owners, the city could be relied upon to restrict itself.
Plans for the new city hall have not been officially submitted yet, so are not grandfathered in under the ordinance’s March 15 deadline. But, because the land is zoned “public” it is exempt from the ordinance along with “residential” and “lodge” districts.
Plans for city buildings come to the planning and zoning department directly from the individual departments seeking the development. State law calls for a faster review of public projects once they are submitted.