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Pitkin County commissioners approve slate of year-end measures, set follow-ups
Summary
At their Dec. 4 regular meeting the Pitkin County Board of Commissioners approved minutes, several abatement and administrative items, accepted grants for energy projects, confirmed appointments and set next hearings and site visits for outstanding land-use matters.
Pitkin County commissioners on Dec. 4 approved a number of administrative, budget and land-use actions while setting follow-up dates and site visits for items requiring more public review.
On the consent calendar the board approved minutes from the Nov. 20 regular meeting and multiple property tax abatement items and a Regent-denied abatement (Ridge Road Casa LLC) following staff recommendations. The board appointed Scott Woolley to fill a vacancy on the Aspen Pitkin County Housing Authority Board and approved a mix of county contracts and intergovernmental agreements that included child-support and child-welfare hotline services provided by neighboring counties.
At the meeting the board also approved a fourth-quarter budget supplemental request that increased 2024 expenditures by $2,985,630 with offsetting revenue changes that resulted in a net budget increase of $545,003. The board referred that supplemental to public hearing on Dec. 18.
Two state grants were accepted for further study work: a Colorado Energy Office grant to advance a geothermal thermal-energy network feasibility/design for the ABC campus area, and a Department of Local Affairs grant to support a western Colorado sustainable aviation fuel feasibility study. Both measures were accepted and scheduled for follow-up public hearings.
The board adopted (first reading) an ordinance to repeal a 2020 emergency ordinance authorizing temporary restaurant seating expansions enacted during the COVID emergency, returning permanent siting and conditional-use decisions to normal land-use review; the repeal was set for public hearing on Dec. 18.
Open-space items passed: the board approved the Smuggler Open Space Draft Management Plan (as amended to note historical Hunter Creek diversion disputes), accepted a conservation easement for Turnabout Ranch (open-space parcel C), and accepted a donation of the Delaney property near Marble. The board also agreed to continue the larger Pfister/West-Buttermilk land-use proposal (rezoning/PUD and subdivision matters) to a January second-reading cycle and scheduled a site visit.
For items that require more time, the board continued the Darling Farm LLC application to Feb. 12, 2025. The board scheduled a site visit for the Pfister tracks matter on Jan. 3 and set the application for second-reading/public hearing on Jan. 8, 2025.
Votes with outcomes recorded in the meeting minutes included routine unanimous “ayes” on most consent and individual items, with the land-use and follow-up scheduling motions passing. On one contested item — an amendment to the land-use code to prohibit short-term rentals in certain transitional and rural-remote zones — the board approved the ordinance on second reading by a 5–1 vote (one commissioner recorded a “no”).
The board closed the meeting after several additional departmental and public presentations and directed staff to prepare follow-up materials for January public meetings and hearings.
