Once upon a time in Colorado, the mountain resort town of Aspen became a playground for the rich and famous. Mansions and ski runs and restaurants and shopping and condos and beds-and-breakfasts and vacation rentals grew and grew and GREW, until growth itself defined the local economy.
The average price of a single family home in Aspen so far this year (2021) is
$12 million, up from $10.5 million this time last year.
Jason Blevins --The Colorado Sun
How can local residents, school teachers, restaurant and retail workers afford to live in multi-million dollar homes? They can’t. Sixty-eight percent of local homes stand empty. They are empty because absentee owners live elsewhere and only vacation there. They are empty because out-of-town investors hire property managers to rent residences to visitors at significantly higher prices than local workers can afford.
Last week, the Aspen city council unanimously passed an emergency moratorium on permits for new home construction, renovation and short-term rentals through 2022. This was not an insignificant thing to do, economically.
Original research provided by The Colorado Sun:
From January through August, visitors staying in short-term rental homes in Aspen spent about $50.7 million. With the city’s 2% lodging tax, the roughly 1,200 permitted short-term rentals generated about $1 million for the city through August.
Aspen collected $5.8 million in fees for permits and planning applications paid by homeowners and builders in 2020. Through Dec. 8 this year, the city had collected $5.9 million in those development fees, which are not broken down based on construction type.
People in the construction and rental businesses, architects, builders, and folks from Vrbo and Airbnb are squawking like long-tailed cats in a room full of rocking chairs. They claim the action was taken suddenly with no notice given. They are scrambling to collect signatures on petitions and fight the council’s action.
However, according to Phillip Supino, Aspen’s director of community development:
The ban on short-term rental permits and home construction through next summer was the “culmination of years of discussion” between community planners and the town council …
That discussion involved affordable housing, short-term rentals, the city’s off-the-charts real estate market, Aspen’s ambitious climate plan and environmental goals, as well as a decades-long battle to protect the community’s character, Supino said.
Rocky Mountain PBS :
According to the ordinance language, recent STR (Short Term Rental) activity has had a negative impact on the community and environment, and does not align with the goals outlined in the AACP (Aspen Area Community Plan).
Aspen Area Community Plan, 103-page PDF at this link.
The struggle between development, economic interests and preserving the character of the towns and affordable housing for local residents is an issue for not only Aspen, but many mountain towns in Colorado.
This will be a fight to watch.