Snowmass Village, CO: Article by Jill Beathard, Aspentimes
By a slim majority, the Snowmass Village Town Council voted Tuesday to approve the first reading of an ordinance changing when Aspen Skiing Co. can build its Fanny Hill Townhomes project, a change it says is key to its ongoing commitment to building the Limelight Snowmass hotel in Base Village.
The current approvals for the Fanny Hill Townhomes on Wood Road require that several Base Village buildings that have not been started as of now be complete for construction on the residential project to start. Skico applied in December to change that phasing requirement so that the townhomes and Limelight Snowmass hotel, which it has proposed to build in Base Village, would be constructed concurrently.
The biggest objection from some council members to the request was “why now?” Mayor Markey Butler questioned why Skico hadn’t waited until after the legal agreements for new approvals for the overall Base Village project were complete, a process that must be finished 90 days after the Town Council’s Dec. 21 approval.
Don Schuster, Skico vice president of hospitality development, first responded by saying that the company already felt far behind on the Limelight, which he said should have been open by now.
“It’s also extremely frustrating from our perspective on what’s gone on,” Schuster said.
He recounted how the council had denied a request by Related in late 2014 to expedite the review process for the major Base Village application, after which Skico pulled its application for the Limelight.
“We had already committed to steel shop drawings for the project,” Schuster said.
“But because of the decision that was going to push this process out and the uncertainty that any Base Village was going to be built at all, we decided to pull that application because of capital risk, financial risk.”
Town Attorney John Dresser pointed out that the Limelight application was then separate from the larger Base Village review, something the Town Council approved at Skico’s request to help move the process along. Skico and Related both withdrew those applications after the council denied Related’s request for expedition, he said.
“I don’t know what agreement they made but both were withdrawn simultaneously,” Dresser said.
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