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After extended debate, Aspen council approves demolition allotment and warns program needs review
Summary
Council voted to grant a demolition allotment for 325 Park Avenue (Resolution 145) after a lengthy exchange about the city’s six-per-year demolition-allotment cap, waste diversion rules and construction impacts; the motion passed unanimously with council members saying the program will be evaluated further.
Haley Hart, the city's long-range planner, presented Resolution 145, a request for a demolition allotment for property at 325 Park Avenue. The applicant's representative urged council to treat the allotment as a routine entitlement and to reconsider the program-wide cap of six demolition allotments per year.
"My client's property is one of them that is not ecologically friendly," the applicant's representative, Chris Bridal, told the council as he argued the proposed project complies with newer waste-diversion and residential-design policies and that the cap creates unnecessary expense and delay.
Councilors spent more than an hour debating policy trade-offs: supporters of the allotment cited the project's compliance with current waste-diversion requirements and the need for housing, while critics questioned whether the cap and the program's current structure are achieving the intended goals of slowing construction churn and protecting neighborhood quality. Councilor Bill described his experience with deconstruction under the current program — more workers on-site and longer timelines — and said staff should assess which elements of the program work and which do not.
After discussion, a motion to approve Resolution 145 — granting an allotment borrowed from 2026 allotments — carried on a roll call vote. Council directed staff to continue data collection and to bring further code changes through the planned work sessions.
