Snowmass Staff Doubt 252 Spaces Enough for New Ritz-Carlton Plan

Aspen —Will 252 parking spaces be enough for a Ritz-Carlton, a conference center, and 90+ new apartments in Snowmass?

The short answer from town staff: no. Not even close.

The Snowmass Planning and Zoning Commission met Wednesday evening to review the final phases of the Sketch Plan for a massive redevelopment. The project, led by Elevated Snowmass LLC, targets three specific properties: the Viewline, the Snowmass Conference Center, and Wildwood Lodge.

Elevated Snowmass is run by Stéphane De Baets. He owns the St. Regis in Aspen and Redstone Castle. He bought this Snowmass property last year. His team presented two configurations for the new workforce housing component. One leaned on studio units. The other prioritized one-bedrooms.

The commission favored the second layout. It includes 26 studios, 34 one-bedroom units, 25 two-bedroom units, and seven three-bedroom units. That is a total of 92 new housing units.

The shift away from studios wasn’t arbitrary. The town’s housing department flagged that studios historically see higher turnover rates. De Baets’ team adjusted the mix to reflect that feedback.

But who gets the keys? That is where the friction started.

The proposal splits the units down the middle. Half go to Ritz-Carlton employees working in Snowmass. The other half are reserved for St. Regis employees working in Aspen. Any remaining spots go to the town’s workforce housing waitlist, with priority for “essential employees.”

Planning Commission Vice Chair Brian Marshack pushed back on that 50/50 split. He urged the team to make Snowmass employees the primary priority.

“Snowmass is its own destination and needs to be,” Marshack said.

Commissioner Jim Gustafson agreed. He expressed disappointment that half the housing would be dedicated to workers commuting from Aspen.

De Baets’ team defended the arrangement. Jessica Garrow, a principal at Design Workshop working on the project, noted that they are already using units in the “functionally obsolete” Wildwood property for employee housing. Some of those workers already split their time between Aspen and Snowmass.

“The Wildwood units have helped to bridge the gap for hotel employees who need housing to work in Snowmass and in Aspen,” Garrow said. She added that under current ownership, a mix of employees from the Viewline, St. Regis Aspen, and neighboring businesses use the hotel rooms through leases ranging from four to 12 months.

The workforce housing plan largely won support on the commission floor. The parking plan did not.

The Parking Math Doesn’t Work

The proposal calls for a subgrade parking structure with 252 spaces. Of those, only 63 are reserved for the workforce housing residents.

The Snowmass community development team flagged a problem in their staff report. The plan includes only half the number of parking spaces per workforce housing unit required by town code.

Read that again. Half.

The staff report recommends the applicant dedicate more of the proposed parking toward the full-time residents. The current allocation leaves a significant gap between what the code demands and what the developer is offering.

De Baets’ team has to close that gap before this moves forward. The commission isn’t done with the numbers.