Aspen Club and Spa co-owner Michael Fox paints the proposal to build 20 timeshare condos and 12 affordable housing units on the club's 5-acre site as an innovative business plan that will bring sustainable building and holistic tourism to the east end of Ute Avenue.

A large and vocal contingent of club supporters say the plan is the only way to save the 30-year-old Aspen institution, and its good works in the community, from the bulldozers and a conversion to riverside trophy homes.

But in granting conceptual approval to the development plan on Monday night, Aspen City Council members want more assurances that the proposal will bring the community benefits of which Fox speaks, and will not simply be another real estate pimp job.

After receiving conceptual approval, the Aspen Club's proposal must go back through a final review before the Planning and Zoning Commission and come back again to the City Council.

"Our goal is to try to create a box that preserves the Aspen Club," said Fox, noting that Aspen's high-dollar real estate market puts pressure on business owners to sell out. In ticking off the businesses Aspen has lost or is going to lose - the Crystal Palace, the Mother Lode and the Cooper Street Pier - Fox said he doesn't want the club to go down that road.

"The smart money" would be on selling the property to a real estate developer who would raze the club and build 5,000-square-foot single-family homes, Fox said, a use for which the club's land is zoned.

By not taking that route, "I must not be that smart," Fox said with self-deprecating humor.

By building and selling 20 timeshare units sold in one-sixteenth intervals, the club would raise something in the neighborhood of $90 million, which would finance the construction of the affordable housing units, subsidize a green building plan intended to reduce the club's carbon footprint and finance improvements to the club including a new outdoor swimming pool and new locker rooms.

"(Fox) is trying to buy into Aspen, not sell out," Mike Marolt told the council at Monday's meeting. Marolt was one of more than a dozen residents who showed up to speak in favor of the club's proposal. A handful of comments were made in opposition to the project.

Fox told the council that he owns a 35 percent interest in the club. The remaining 65 percent is owned by investors Fox said are not local, a revelation that led Mayor Mick Ireland to call foul on the characterization of the Aspen Club as a "locally owned business."

The ownership group, under the name Aspen Club Spa LLC, purchased the club in 1996 for $5.5 million, according to public records. A search of the Colorado Secretary of State's Web site lists the club's registered agent as Chris LaCroix, an attorney with local firm Garfield and Hecht.

Since purchasing the club, Fox said membership rolls have jumped from 400 in 1996 to 2,000 today.

To receive permission to build timeshares on what are now the Aspen Club's tennis courts, the city must declare the club's site a "Specially Planned Area." Aspen's land-use code requires there to be a public benefit associated with such a designation, but the meaning of "public benefit" is left open for interpretation.

For Fox, the public benefit is the continued operation and enhancement of the Aspen Club, as well as the affordable housing and the green building.

Numerous club employees said the project would provide professional growth opportunities that they would not otherwise have.

"The amount of talent under that roof is truly world class," said Dirk Schultz, a personal trainer and wellness coach at the club.

The club's good works in the community were also noted. The club hosts Project Graduation each year, where Aspen High School graduating seniors are given an all-night, safe party; local doctors recently relocated to the club after a rent hike at their old offices threatened to push them out of town; the club also offers support to numerous valley nonprofits.

All of these things, plus the ability of locals to access the club, would be preserved and enhanced if the council approves the Aspen Club expansion, Fox said. The nature of the business plan, which is to sell the timeshares as a wellness amenity connected to the club, and to reinvest millions into club facilities, ensures that the Aspen Club intends to be here to stay, Fox said.

But those assurances were not enough for council members, who are seeking greater legal guarantees that the club will remain as it is today.

"How are we assured that (the club's programming for the community) will stay and have a lasting effect, just as the (specially planned area) will?" Councilman Dwayne Romero asked. He encouraged Fox to explore "other tools" that could be used to legally bind the club to keep running as such.

The club is also being pressed to give a detailed traffic-management plan, as the club is proposing to actually reduce the amount of car trips on Ute Avenue from today if the new development goes in. Fox said this could be accomplished by adding shuttle van service to and from the club from town, initiating a car-share program for lodge guests and affordable housing residents and by promoting walking and cycling the 1 mile distance between the club and downtown Aspen. But the assertion that the timeshare's 60 bedrooms would lead to a decrease in traffic was met with skepticism from council.

Councilman Jack Johnson said the council's critical eye toward the project is not about the Aspen Club's value to the community or Michael Fox's innate goodness as a person. Instead it's about a trade-off of public benefits for the right to build timeshares.

"It's difficult for me to see how a loss of tennis courts is a public benefit," Johnson said. He is requesting specific details on how the recreational and fitness facilities of the club will be changed by the proposal.

"I want drawings," he said. Johnson cast the one dissenting vote against the conceptual approval.

Councilman Steve Skadron laid out the dichotomy. The club is proposing a "massive development" of timeshares in a zone that does not allow lodging, and as currently proposed, there is nothing stopping Fox from selling the club once the timeshares are built to a less benevolent owner.

"But I also recognize the importance of the Aspen Club to locals and our guests," Skadron said, terming the development "at least not inappropriate for the neighborhood."

Councilman J.E. DeVilbiss said the club's application was akin to the land-use poker many developers play at the council table, where the threat hangs in the air that if the project is not approved, the city will end up with something less desirable than the status quo.

Or as DeVilbiss put it, "There's always some puppy dog that's about to be shot if we don't do the right thing."

DeVilbiss voted in favor of the conceptual approval.

"I'm persuaded there is enough merit to go forward with the conceptual," he said.

curtis@aspendailynews.com [1]