In comment #1, Post blogger Michael Conniff applauds the efforts of Marily Marks but takes issue with her conclusions. "The Burlingame Construction Experts Group--formed by City Manager Steve Barwick--smacked of window dressing from the very start," he blogs, "a way for the City to SEEM responsive without committing to anything, as your missive now attests. It's awful that the City wasted everybody's time, but were you really surprised by this? Second...my concern was the City would vote its Burlingame shares and thus dictate to the current residents what would happen--anti-democratic behavior to say the least."
In "The Red Ant," her email missive, Citizen Marks delineates her unhappiness with the Aspen City Council's decision to allow existing Burlingame residents to control the future of the affordable housing project. "The Bad News Never Ends," she writes. "There is much yet to be understood in this continuingly suprising story of gross mismanagement of our most precious Affordable Housing resource--Burlingame Ranch. No experienced developer would have: filed the legal documents excluding flexibility and possible growth of a development, granted control of the HOA votes prematurely, granted homeowners veto rights to increased density at an unnecessarily low threshold of 236."
Post blogger Michael Conniff tries to think his way out of Aspen's affordable housing problem--and finds some land in some unexpected places. "Let’s start with the Zupancis-Galena (Z-G) property," blogs the Con Man, "the piece along Main Street now contemplated for a new $50 million Pitkin County office building. The City has plans to sell the lot to the County for an office building, but what could be better for affordable housing than some greenish affordable and/or employee housing right there on Main Street? Considering the Pitkin County office building would replace the existing structure, my guess the plot could accommodate at least 25 units, maybe much more depending on the density bugaboo."
Posts filed under 'Aspen City Council'
Some called it a "punch in the stomach," others "complete incompetence," but Thursday, most of the volunteer professionals of the Burlingame Construction Experts Group expressed surprise and dismay when informed that the City had essentially granted bullet proof veto rights to current Burlingame homeowners to prevent density beyond 236 units! The group, working for the past three months to increase Burlingame density was informed that any increase will require a 100%* (yes, unanimous!) vote of the homeowners! (Could even a March powder day garner a 100% affirmative vote in Aspen? Probably not!) Sounds like a sure fire way to avoid optimizing this crucial property. We are astounded that the City would have limited the housing program's flexibility in this way. One member says he has "lost hope" [for fixing Burlingame].
Continue Reading September 6th, 2008
When it comes to fateful decisions, nothing beats the one by Aspen City Council to “bank” land—to spend $35 million, far more than they had in the bank, for a series of land purchases that culminated in the controversial $18 million-plus that went to pay for the BMC West lumber yard.
If the Council had kept the money in the bank—and not borrowed $8 million or so from the city-owned Wheeler Opera House—then there would have been a margin of error for the Burlingame affordable housing project when things went south. As it was, the City had no safety net when disaster struck. That set me to thinking about whether the City might have missed what was right under theirs noses: some choice land, already owned by the City or within the realm of possibility, that would have filled in the blanks when it came to bankable land.
Continue Reading September 4th, 2008
I badly want to believe the news that Aspen City Council is likely to postpone any bond relating to affordable housing—the $16 million “stealth bond” I’ve blogged about before.
I badly want to applaud that decision but I can’t, because it’s clear City Mamas and Papas are embracing the postponement for all the wrong reasons, citing concerns like multiple administrative costs for multiple bonds, as if a little tweaking will make everything right.
My applause will have to wait, because I have seen or heard nothing to indicate anyone in the top of the Aspen hierarchy—pols or staff—understands what just happened in the last six months when it comes to affordable housing.
Continue Reading August 22nd, 2008
After the hot-damn town hall meeting about affordable housing at the Paepcke, I was more than willing to leave the Burlingate affordable housing fiasco behind. When you’re sick of both sides—when your allies are cursing you out harder than the other times—it’s time to step back.
Just not yet.
The City, you see, is trying to pull another fast one.
Continue Reading August 19th, 2008
Side-by-side on the front page of the local paper Friday morning were two stories that said everything that’s wrong about Aspen—and, more to the point, everything that’s right.
The first story spoke of the open house on affordable housing I moderated for “The Jerry Bovino Show” at the Paepcke auditorium Thursday night (and seen on GrassRoots TV); the second of Aspen City Manager Steve Barwick’s decision not to support placing a $50 million bond on the ballot come November 2008 to pay for affordable housing.
In my opinion, the news contained in both stories was nothing less than a monumental ellipsis in the history of Aspen, a “Return of the Jedi” moment for the plain old people who form the heart and soul of the town.
Continue Reading August 10th, 2008
I will have (much) more to say about what went down Thursday night at the Paepcke when about 100 people who really do care about Aspen showed up for a Town Hall confab put on by The Committee That Knows No Name. But something amazing happened at the very end of the evening, something I’m confident the reporters from the local papers missed.
By the time the topic of intimidation came onto the table, about 50 people were still in the room—the people who really really cared. I think it was Jerry Bovino who asked whether those in the audience felt they could speak out in Aspen without fear of intimidation or retribution.
Close to half the hands shot up into the air, including many of those up front and right on the aisle—another signal of their intense interest in the town.
Continue Reading August 8th, 2008
The appalling dishonesty in the Burlingame saga continues. The City persists in its misrepresentation of the facts, deception of the public and cover-ups of deliberate actions related to Burlingame.
The results of recent audits were presented to our local media last Monday via a press release from the City that erroneously cited that the "two independent investigations" found "no evidence of intentional misrepresentation of facts." Tuesday’s headlines screamed "vindication" for the City. This is particularly troubling since the CPA audit appropriately did not even address this issue, yet alone comment on it. (CPA audits do not and cannot undertake legal issues such as “intentional misrepresentation.”)
Continue Reading August 5th, 2008
Assistant City Manager Bentley Henderson is not exactly a casualty of the Burlingate affordable housing brouhaha. He just got a better job in his hometown of Basalt.
That's the story emanating from Aspen City Hall and there's no reason not to believe it. Many of Burlingame's headaches preceded Henderson's tenure as head of the asset management department, and so he was not personally on the hook for Burlingate's sordid unaffordable history. Compared to months of agita to come in Aspen, no wonder he chose the relative anonymity of the Basalt Public Works department.
Continue Reading August 5th, 2008
The Burlingame affordable housing mess got messier this week when the City of Aspen issued a press release saying two internal inquiries, by a consulting firm and a Certified Public Accountants, exonerated Aspen City Council and City officials--an assertion the City had to retract the very next day in a clarifying press release with corrections.
The discrepancy is significant because both the Aspen Daily News and the Aspen Times ran stories based on the incorrect conclusions put forth in the press release. The Daily News headline read: "Burlingame Probe Clears City of Aspen." The Times reported "Audits Clear City In Burlingame Error."
Continue Reading July 29th, 2008
An eclectic mix from the Con Man: Robert Thurman, author of "Why The Dali Lama Matters," the father of actress Uma Thurman; then a rant on City officials blaming him for a rumor; and finally a visit from Aspen Olympian snowboarder Chris Klug, with news of his foundation to promote organ donation.
Click here for the complete "Con Games with Michael Conniff" for Monday July 21, 2008.
July 21st, 2008
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