There is no end to how far the city is willing to go to achieve its publicly subsidized housing goals. Next on the block is the bastardization of 205 W. Main Street. The plan is to allow developers to move the prominent corner Victorian to the side to accommodate nearly 8,000 sf of subsidized housing to be built behind and to the side of it (see rendering below).
Standing in the way is Aspen's historical preservation commission (HPC). Their guidelines are clear and the proposal does not meet several of them. But with city council and staff strongly advocating for an approval, will HPC capitulate?
I rarely ask you to get this involved, but I can't live with myself if I don't. Please read my column in today's Aspen Times
HERE and follow up with a letter to HPC, to be included in their November 16 meeting packet.
HERE is an email link. Facts are critical. Please note "205 W. Main Street" on the subject line and be sure to remind them that:
- The proposed project's density and scale are in no way proportional to the Victorian, as required by the historic preservation guidelines
- The proposed project does not meet the required open space standards on the site, as required by the historic preservation guidelines
- The Victorian makes a notable contribution to Aspen's historic character, which prevents it from being moved, as stipulated in the historic preservation guidelines
- The project is all wrong and antithetical to Aspen's historic preservation values
- The recent trend of marginalizing historic properties by building/adding enormous subsidized housing complexes must stop
- Any other thoughts about the inappropriateness of this proposal and others like it
It is not HPC's role to assist developers in diminishing our historic buildings; they are the appointed stewards of Aspen's history. Please show HPC your support for prioritizing our history over anything else. (Let our elected city council make any and all tragic decisions that stand to destroy our historic resources.)
