Greed alleged in Aspen parking plan

ASPEN – Both parking rates and voices are being raised in Aspen.

“Greed, greed, greed,” wrote one letter-writer toThe Aspen Times, responding to a city government proposal to end free two-hour parking near the commercial core. Installing about 75 pay stations will cost $950,000, but the town expects to generate $340,000 a year in revenue.

The Aspen Times indicates the goal is to free up parking spaces and nudge people into mass transit. Currently, people move their vehicles every two hours, with some businesses even designating car-movers. City officials estimate 600 people move their cars during a day.

The newspaper doesn’t like the idea. “Aspen is expensive and exclusive enough as it is. The commuters who drive to and from Aspen every day are the folks who make this town tick,” said theTimes in an editorial. “It’s easy for Aspen residents to sit on their high horses and expect all commuters to take mass transit, but that mindset is naive and fueled by false expectations. Whether it be for family, professional or other concerns, there are times when commuters must drive to work.”

Mike Ireland, the town’s mayor and once a reporter at theTimes, saw it differently. “At a time when the planet and the resort are headed toward a climate change cataclysm, the newspaper asks that we continue down the same old path: taxpayer money to reward single-occupancy auto use through ‘free’ parking that really should be called ‘subsidized parking.’”

Ireland, who rides a bicycle and lives in deed-restricted affordable housing, concluded: “Paid parking is the one tool that has been proven to be effective in reducing single-occupancy vehicle traffic, reducing congestion and producing cleaner air.”

Crested Butte expansion heats up

CRESTED BUTTE – Little by little, the argument is shaping up at Crested Butte about the wisdom of expanding the ski area.

Even before Tim and Diane Mueller bought the ski area in 2005, ski area representatives have been arguing that the ski area needs the expansion on Snodgrass Mountain in order to attract weeklong destination skiers. The existing mountain, while long on double-black-diamond terrain, is short of ski terrain sufficient to hold the attention of an intermediate-level skier for more than about three days. Snodgrass would almost exclusively be of intermediate difficulty.

With more terrain, goes their argument, Crested Butte can become just big enough – perhaps 500,000 to 600,000 skiers a day – to operate on an efficient scale. That’s not quite double the existing skier-day total.

But a group called Friends of Snodgrass questions whether the expansion is justified. At a recent town meeting, representative Chuck Shaw pointed out that destination ski resorts in Colorado increased their amount of skiable acres by 64.5 percent from 1994-95 to 2005-06 while actually declining in skier days.

Breck dodges mining’s comeback

BRECKENRIDGE – With mining making a comeback across the West, theSummit County Journal wonders whether mining could ever return to Breckenridge, which began as a gold-mining camp in 1859.

Possibly – but it seems not likely, not even with gold now valued at $650 an ounce. The Country Boy Mine, near Breckenridge and active until 1948, still has $50 million in its veins, said owner Paul Hintgen, but he told the newspaper he’s not tempted to reopen it. The ore would have to be of a higher content, containing crystallized gold, he said. Extraction of the gold would be expensive and environmentally taxing.

Summit County has taken pains to make sure the extraction would be difficult, having passed a ban in 2004 of cyanide heap-leach mining. The Colorado Mining Association is legally challenging the legality of that ban.

Meanwhile, southwest of Breckenridge 10 miles, Phelps Dodge continues to revamp the Climax Mine, with the possibility of restarting production in 2009. That mine has been mostly inactive since 1981.

Hotelier yanks plans for Ketchum

KETCHUM, Idaho – Of the five proposed hotels in Ketchum, only three remain. The developer of two of the potential hotels, Dallas-based Open House Partners, has yanked the projects. The cause seems to be a dispute about whether the condo-hotel would be allowed to go to five stories, as the developer had wanted, or four stories, long the limit in Ketchum.

The cause is one of those he-said, she-said stories. Mark Masinter, chief executive officer of the development company, blamed the city. “We spent a bunch of time and money, but the town wasn’t ready to do a project of this nature,” he told theIdaho Mountain Express.

Ketchum’s mayor, Randy Hall, tells the newspaper another story. He said Masinter said he was unable to reach an agreement with the seller. The asking price for the land alone is $260 per square foot, or $12.8 million.

The mayor speculated the national credit crunch may have also played into Masinter’s decision. As for Ketchum, he said the city was “bending over backwards to give these guys every opportunity to get his project off the ground.”

Several conflicting statements suggest that height and mass are the major – but not only – source of friction. Masinter said he needed five stories to make the project work. Ketchum has been hesitant about going that high, although a proposal to raise the bar is scheduled for consideration.

Bow hunter alleges wolf sighting

LEADVILLE – On the east side of Independence Pass, in the same general area where hunters believed they saw a grizzly bear last September, a hunter this year says he saw a wolf.

“I’ve got news for ya. I’ve seen thousands of coyotes, and this wasn’t a coyote,” said Roger Eshelman, a hunter of 30 years. He estimated the animal weighted 100 pounds and stood 3 feet tall. He told theAspen Times that he observed the animal through binoculars for about a minute before it slunk off.

Colorado Division of Wildlife officials said they believed the hunter saw a canine. A pile of poop that the hunter submitted for evidence further confirmed it was a canine – but not necessarily a wolf.

No grizzly bear has been confirmed with absolute certainty since 1978. For wolves, there is much more recent evidence. A wolf was killed on Interstate 70 near Idaho Springs in 2004. The wolf was tracked back to the Yellowstone area. Another possible wolf was videotaped in north-central Colorado in early 2006.

Vail announces green real-estate

VAIL – Vail Resorts is announcing the details of how it intends to make its latest real-estate venture in Vail, a $1 billion project called Ever Vail, ever green. The company proposes to seek a silver-level LEED designation for the whole 9.5-acre project located to the west of Lionshead.

Among the ideas are installing micro-hydro turbines in the adjacent Gore Creek to provide electrical power, and using ground-source heat pumps – tapping the earth’s energy – to heat sidewalks. As well, roofs may be made of sod.

Another idea contained in a proposal announced by the company includes a “flex car” program that would provide a fleet of cars for Ever Vail owners to use while in town.

The project tentatively calls for up to 375 condominiums, half of them in timeshare. A gondola would be built, if approved by the U.S. Forest Service, to connect the real estate to the ski mountain.

Also contemplated is a six-story parking garage that would hold 700 spaces, plus affordable housing for up to 123 people.

The project still faces review by Vail town officials.

Mining town shifts into ski resort

KELLOGG, Idaho – Kellogg, located along Interstate 90 in the Idaho panhandle, is getting gussied up. Three installments of condominiums have been sold at the base of the ski gondola, and an indoor water park – the first at a ski resort in the West – is now being built.

That’s quite a change from 1981, when the silver mine shut down, putting 200 people out of work and leaving a Superfund cleanup in its wake. But whether Kellogg truly deserves to be called a “swanky ski resort,” as an Associated Press story describes the town, is another matter.

The story acknowledges such a description is relative. But the trend is clear. The first batch of condominiums, which sold in 2004, went for as low as $100,000. Prices exceeded $800,000 for several condos sold last year.

The story observes that what makes Kellogg attractive is its relative accessibility. Travelers can fly from Southern California to Spokane, Wash., located about an hour east along the interstate.

– Allen Best