Supporting the Aspen Community

APCHA REFORM / HOUSING

• Help Retirees Move on - 30% of APCHA residents are retired. We certainly don't want to kick retirees out of Aspen if they want to retire here, but I have spoken with many who would like to move down valley or out of valley where the climate is more friendly to the elderly. This could mean creating a regional housing authority and building retirement units down the valley where it is vastly less expensive to build . Another idea would be programs that contribute to a down-payment for a new property. The current Lumberyard project costs $1M a bed, so even if Apcha put up $100k-$200 to "buy out" that is much less expensive and faster.
• Future Retirement Housing Fund - Moving forward for current working APCHA residents, I would propose a program similar to a 401(k) where Apcha residents pay in over time and the City matches or makes some level of contribution. That money can go into the the market and gain value over a resident's working careers, so that after 20-30 years of working in Aspen, they could have several hundred thousand dollars to go towards buying a non-APCHA residence, whether that is down valley, Florida, or even Mexico. This fund would only be available if they move out of Apcha housing.
• More funds to maintain existing stock - A lot of current Apcha housing is again and lived in by an aging population who just simply can't maintain a property. We need to make sure there are funds to do deferred maintenance when properties are turned over to new residents. Some deed-restricted units have gone up for sale with over $1 million in deferred maintenance. APCHA needs to step in in cases and bring the property back to reasonable condition or it can not be considered affordable housing. 
• Renter Vs Owner Occupied Qualifications. Currently, renters are required to jump through hoops to requalify every two years, where Owners just have to sign a form that they still qualify. There are many Owners who are gaming the system. We either need rolling audits or regularly require Owners to submit basic paperwork like W2 or 1099s to make sure they aren't making well over their category restrictions or work outside the valley.
• Site-in-Lieu Fee - We need to update our housing Fee-in-Lieu offset, which is currently only generating $700k per unit, while the Lumberyard will cost around $1M per unit, so our funding for housing is falling well behind. This off-set fee should be higher than it costs the city to build a bed, so that it encourages developers to incorporate affordable housing in their development plans instead of just paying the fee. We want developers to decide that they can do it themselves for less than the fee. This will also allow affordable house to be more spread out and to be built at faster rate than mega project like the Lumberyard,
• Remove unnecessary requirements for business owners. There is no reason Apcha should require a business plan if they already have our tax returns and profit/loss statement. Also, if a business owner is doing the required 1500 hours in the county, there is no reason to limit their out ot valley to 25% of their clients. That is just telling business owners to run a worse business. 

Rein in Irresponsible Developers

Our downtown is half under development and half boarded up. Properties like the Restoration Hardware are an eye-sore on our town and hurt surrounding businesses, and consequently city revenue. We need to structure a land-use and code system that disincentivizes developers to leave buildings empty or partially built such as a vacancy tax. 

The Entrance Debate:

• After 20+ years of debate in and in action, I believe we need to check back in with our community to see where they stand, which effectively what Referendum 2 does. I will follow the voters' choice after the election and implement the best option for our town based on the referendum. Most important is that we stop the inaction of past councils and move forward with a long-term bridge solution
• A couple factors I think I was voters to consider is that at any time CDOT could review the state of the bridge and and put a weight limit on it bridge which would mean none of the large trucks stocking foot at City Market could enter, nor could large construction trucks like 18-wheelers, which would have a major impact on our economy.
• Repairing the current bridge would likely mean one-way traffic and a stoplight for up to 2 years across the bridge as repairing a bridge with cars on it takes much longer.  The traffic / economic impact of this would be huge.
• One of the more concerning issues I hadn't considered is that if the City opens a new EIS, we obviously will have community input, but that the final decision is in CDOTS hands. We don't get to just request a 3-lane shift or another alternative. Furthermore, someone who works with CDOT regularly said a new EIS could involve new stakeholders like down valley communities and since our town has grown substantially since the ROD, there is a real possibility that CDOT would come back with a larger highway and bridge through Moralt/PA than the current PA. Furthermore, given the costs of a Cut and Cover these days and CDOTs current budget constraints, we would likely lose the Cut and Cover option.

More Funds for Public Art and the Art Community:

The Wheeler currently has a 60M surplus from the WRETT. Once any capital improvements are finished, let's turn those funds over to artists, art organizations and public art in the form of grants.