Aspen City Council declared an emergency, and quickly, without public input, passed a moratorium on residential development and on granting new short term rental permits in the City of Aspen. The swift decision to impose this real estate restriction is defended by the City Council as an opportunity to press pause and assess the impact of the property appreciation and increasing limited long term / affordable rental options for Aspen’s year-round local professional and services based population.
What does this really mean (read the full ordinance (here);
The ordinance takes effect immediately (12/8/2021 at 9:45pm)
Moratorium on the acceptance of any new Land Use Application seeking a development order or notice of approval, and on the acceptance of certain building permit applications for all residential uses in all zone districts within the City of Aspen.
Moratorium on granting new short term rental permits in the City of Aspen
Though the intent to maintain our growth plan in accordance with the 2012 Aspen Area Community Plan seems admirable, it feels short sighted to not consider the implied impact to those individuals / companies / industries that will feel the pain - our year-round professional and service based labor force (those this effort is trying to protect, in theory). Consider Architectural firms, they will not be conducting much, if any, business development / development planning, likely resulting in layoffs. This same context can be applied to home developers and their labor force, as well as many others.
Now, let’s talk about Short Term Rentals. There is certainly an interest for buyers to justify an expensive property purchase with the ability to offset costs through making it available as a short term rental. This is likely a contributing factor, but definitely not the driving force of home price appreciation in the City of Aspen. For our 2nd home owner buyer profile, this would be like buying a yacht and putting it up for charter - pretty standard, and not unreasonable given that demographic. Imposing a restriction on expanding this opportunity will not benefit our local population as these types of homes are not going to be made available to them for rent long term, but more likely, will sit vacant even more since these homeowners will still want to enjoy and access their property. What it will do is maintain, not expand, the job opportunity short term rentals provide to our service industry. Think, rental property management and turnover (property managers, house cleaners, contracted upkeep, etc.), and this doesn’t include the trickle down effect of less tourism impacting all of our other offerings around town. In addition, the demand for short term rentals will percolate out into our surrounding communities of Snowmass, Woody Creek, Basalt, and Carbondale, which will contribute to more traffic, as visitors will still be making their way into town.
This may be a stretch, but my opinion is this ordinance is a covered opportunity for City Council to review and update land use codes and short term rentals to determine how the city can generate additional revenue on the associated influx of capital. This is a warranted objective, but could be handled with consideration of public opinion and a rational (not rushed) decision making process.
As I mention earlier, the demand for short term rentals and development progress in our surrounding communities will prevail in the interim, but may feel a sense of anxiety wondering how they will react to the City of Aspen’s ordinance. This could be a great opportunity for the governing bodies of Snowmass, Basalt, and Carbondale to pursue a more inclusive and progressive agenda that accommodates the growing interest and investment our valley has recognized.
