The Aspen City Council and Pitkin Board of County Commissioners discussed potentially holding a housing summit in the future during their joint meeting on Tuesday. The summit would allow public and private leaders to revisit old policies and how different bodies could better coordinate going forward.
In an evolving affordable housing crisis, upvalley leaders are hoping to get on the same page.
During a joint work session with the Aspen City Council and Pitkin Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday, Aspen Mayor Rachel Richards proposed convening a housing summit — an idea she brought up throughout her campaign this spring.
The city council discussed a potential housing summit during its two-day retreat in May that would include the city council, BOCC, Snowmass Village Town Council, representatives from the private sector, nonprofits and more. Though not an immediate priority for the city council, Richards said it is a long-term goal that could begin next year.
“It does seem that if there’s ways that we could talk about how do we coordinate better and know about each other’s projects and see where there’s places to help, it would make a lot of difference,” Richards said during the meeting.
With a new county revenue stream that voters approved for affordable housing initiatives and an aging population retiring in their free-market homes, it may be time to review the region’s housing policies and address the evolving affordable housing landscape in the valley, she said.
It would not be an opportunity to discuss affordable housing strains that the entities know already exist, but rather an opportunity to discuss how they can work together to attempt to address it further, she added.
“I think there’s a chance to really review and look at a lot of our older housing policies that have been around … for 50 years,” Richards said. “Do they serve us today, whether it’s the capital reserves, whether it’s replacement policies, whether it’s the appreciation cap?”
She suggested including the private sector and upper valley governments in a housing summit, especially as the city begins discussing partnerships for the Lumberyard affordable housing project. They are decisions “the city alone shouldn’t be driving,” she said.
The city council will prioritize the Lumberyard, the entrance to Aspen and the Armory Hall redevelopment project before turning its focus to a housing summit. BOCC Chair Kelly McNicholas Kury said during the joint meeting that it was something she would be interested in, and something commissioners would discuss in a future meeting before reaching a decision to convene a summit.
“I think we had a successful … three board meetings several years ago with APCHA that did result in some things that we haven’t totally seen all the fruit of, for example reserve studies and things like that,” McNicholas Kury said. “But we did come to some consensus at that time about priorities.”
In 2023, Habitat for Humanity hosted a valley-wide housing summit where elected officials, nonprofits and others discussed the housing crisis in the region and tried to identify immediate solutions to the issue.
It is something the governing bodies will likely organize for 2026.
“A housing summit can create greater momentum,” Richards told the Aspen Daily News.
The city council and BOCC also discussed emergency preparedness plans and potential November ballot questions from both the city and county during the joint meeting on Tuesday.