New provisions for doctors’ offices, architects’ studios and the Aspen Brewing Company will be on the table as the Aspen City Council debates amendments to the area officially known as the Service/Commercial/Industrial zone at tonight’s meeting. The code changes come as a moratorium on new development proposals for the SCI is set to end on May 30.
The SCI is a three-acre sliver of land north of the downtown core that since the 1970s has been set aside for businesses that otherwise would be priced out of Aspen. Existing businesses in the zone that exemplify the purpose of the SCI include an auto repair shop, a Laundromat, a tile and bathroom store, and a painting company’s headquarters.
Following directions from City Council at a September work session, the city’s community development department has proposed an ordinance that city planner Ben Gagnon said maintains tight controls on the types of businesses that can operate in the SCI. Over the years the recurring pattern has been to ban types of businesses that would “outcompete” the traditional SCI uses.
The proposed amendments — particularly the incentives proposed to build medical-office space — provide a framework for an eventual redevelopment proposal for the Puppy Smith section of the SCI. The proposed amendments “set parameters for what we think is a good balance,” Gagnon said.
City staff is proposing to increase the maximum floor-area ratio for SCI development from 2:1 to 2.25:1. Floor-area ratio, or FAR, is the ratio of total built square feet to lot size.
City staff is proposing that to be able to redevelop anything in the SCI, at least .75:1, or one-third of a maximum FAR building, be dedicated to SCI businesses. With the minimum SCI space in place, a developer would then be allowed to build .25:1 in free-market condos, which are seen as the economic drivers of any redevelopment project.
With an ear to rumblings in the medical community that a significant number of Aspen’s doctors’ offices are facing rising rents and might be priced out of town, city staff’s SCI proposals include an incentive that would allow a developer to increase its free market FAR to .5:1, if .25:1 in medical office space is built.
“Staff believes that maintaining medical offices in close proximity to the core business district and high-density population areas of any municipality is a basic element of ‘community character,”’ Gagnon wrote in a memo outlining the proposed changes.
Under the proposal, design studios, which include architects’ offices, would be allowed in the SCI only in the Andrews-McFarlin subdivision, a thin sliver of land on the east side of Mill Street near the Roaring Fork River, now home to The Lighting Studio.
This portion of land is being considered for design studios because, with its tricky lot shape and limited parking, it does not lend itself well to traditional SCI businesses, Gagnon said. The 9,000-square-foot floating cap was also difficult to enforce, he added.
Consolidating design studios into Andrews-McFarlin, where most of them are already, would also remove them from competition for other SCI spaces that might be better suited to other SCI businesses, Gagnon said.
The changes would clean up the rules related to design studios and architects’ offices, which has been a contentious section of SCI rules. In the 1980s, architect Harry Teague successfully argued that his business should qualify as an artist’s studio, which was allowed due to the detailed models his office produced. Eventually, the city placed a 9,000-square-foot cap on total amount of design studio space allowed in the SCI.
Other changes include striking outright the provision that allows for martial arts teaching studios. That use was originally included in the late 1970s after a martial arts studio opened in the district, but the definition was expanded in 1999 to include “rehearsal or teaching studios for the creative arts and/or martial arts,” as a nod to a number of yoga and Pilates studios that wanted to be in the district. Since then, many businesses that don’t fit the intention of the SCI have asked to be included in the district.
“It’s a theme we have seen over time,” Gagnon said. “If you open the door just a crack, it gets blown wide open.”
In forming the new codes, Gagnon interviewed SCI business owners, both in the newly redeveloped Obermeyer Place and in the Puppy Smith area. Particularly among Puppy Smith owners, there was a strong consensus to keep tight restrictions in place, Gagnon said.
Obermeyer Place owners, many of whom own their own spaces, tended to speak more about the value of owning their own space, Gagnon said. And the 22 units of affordable housing that are a part of Obermeyer Place, many of which are occupied by owners or employees of the businesses there, were also seen as a boon.
“Owning your business and having housing nearby are two points that everyone agrees are positives,” Gagnon said.
curtis@aspendailynews.com