The Lift One Task Force voted 21-0 Thursday in support of a conceptual site plan for the neighborhood at the base of Aspen Mountain. The plan includes a chairlift approximately 200 feet higher up on the mountain than it is today, and a new ski trail down to Dean Street.

“Twenty-one to zip — pretty good for a public process,” said Tim Ditzler, the task force facilitator.

The site plan will now serve as a basis for refining the scale of two hotels proposed for the area.

The citizens’ task force, which has been meeting weekly since April, applauded itself after Thursday’s vote. It was the second consecutive week that the group has collectively endorsed an evolving vision for the neighborhood.

The biggest difference a week made was that the more recent plan no longer envisions all service traffic traveling up Monarch Street and onto Gilbert Street, but instead directs it underground at the bottom of South Aspen Street into a series of parking garages.

“At the start of this process, I was skeptical we could get 27 Aspenites to agree on anything,” said Stephen Holley, an architect with Poss Architecture and Planning in Aspen, who has been hired to help the task force develop a master plan for the Lift One neighborhood.

The task force has 27 members; 21 of them attended Thursday’s meeting.

The group’s most recent conceptual site plan includes a ski trail running from the base of the existing Lift 1A chairlift under a section of the proposed Lift One Lodge, down through Lift One Park, past the old Skier Chalet building, ending at Willoughby Park just above Dean Street.

Aspen Skiing Co. officials have steadfastly maintained that the best place for the bottom terminal of a new high-speed quad is about 200 feet above the location of the current Lift 1A bottom terminal. After extensive review of the options, almost all task force members have resigned themselves to SkiCo’s preferred location, which company planners feel makes the most sense for a quality repeat-skiing experience.

Rather than a lift running between Dean Street and the top of South Aspen Street, the plan includes a pedestrian pathway leading up the hill from an arrival and drop-off zone at the intersection of Dean and South Aspen streets. The pathway, which runs almost to the top of the street, would be completely separated from vehicle traffic by a “greenway” or “garden zone.”

At the top of the pathway just below the lift, a short escalator would run up through a corner of the Lift One Lodge to carry skiers to the base of the new lift. That is now the only escalator envisioned to help people get up the hill.

On the west side of both the pathway and the greenbelt, a realigned South Aspen Street would curve up the hill, allowing vehicle access to both hotels. The roadway would be only 22 feet wide, just wide enough to allow for fire and emergency vehicles.

Another option up the hill to the base of the lift would be some type of shuttle bus or “peoplemover” that will run up and down the roadway. The specific type of conveyance is yet to be determined. A transportation consultant will present the task force with “peoplemover 101” next week.

The escalator at the top of the pathway is proposed to be located on land owned by the developers of the Lift One Lodge, and a portion of the new roadway would be on land owned by the developers of the Lodge at Aspen Mountain.

“There are a bunch of compromises proposed today,” said John Sarpa, a minority partner in Centurion Partners, which is proposing to build the Lodge at Aspen Mountain.

A series of underground parking garages shared by both hotels would take service vehicles off the streets, which was a sticking point for some residents. All truck traffic would first enter the garage under the Lodge at Aspen Mountain just off South Aspen Street. Service vehicles heading to the Lift One Lodge would connect to another garage under that hotel.

A 125-space parking garage is envisioned under Willoughby Park to replace the parking spaces that exist today along South Aspen Street and in a parking lot just off of Dean Street. Another garage is planned for the lower portion of the Lift One Lodge.

Bringing service vehicles underground is not uncommon in resort development areas, including Aspen Highlands, where service vehicles for the Ritz Carlton and other portions of the base area go under the main plaza to deliver and collect food, trash and laundry.

In addition to connecting the two hotels underground near the bottom of South Aspen Street, the new plan also includes an underground connection near the top of the street to tie together the guest parking garages for both hotels. Under that plan, guests checking in to the Lift One Lodge, or a valet, would drive back down the street and turn left into the garage under the Lodge at Aspen Mountain. Then the vehicles would drive back under South Aspen Street and end up in the garage under the Lift One Lodge.

Bob Daniel pointed out that the concept of two connecting underground garages would tie the start dates and construction processes of the two hotels together.

Before the task-force project got under way in April, the Lodge at Aspen Mountain had been voted down by the Aspen City Council, and the Lift One Lodge had been recommended for approval by the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission. If the site plan endorsed Thursday survives additional scrutiny and review, the fate of the two hotels will become much more closely linked.

Towards the end of the meeting, Sarpa endorsed the conceptual site plan. “This is an exciting possibility for us,” Sarpa said, “we like it.” He also said that “we are anxious as hell to be given a footprint for these buildings.”

Once a footprint has been determined, the developers can crunch the numbers on potential building configurations. That will, in turn, kick off a discussion about financial feasibility and potential trade-offs, such as how much employee housing can, and should, be built on site.

“No one wants to see something so expensive that it is stupid-big,” Sarpa said.

The Lodge at Aspen Mountain will include a full-service hotel and some condos. The Lift One Lodge is proposed as a private club with some access for the general public.

Bob Daniel of the Lift One Lodge was more cautious than Sarpa, saying, “I’m certainly willing to see if we can take this to the next level.”

Dwayne Romero, a professional construction manager and Aspen councilman, spoke as a council member in saying that the latest plan “shows more thought and more intelligence” than earlier incarnations.

“I think this is progress,” Romero said. “It feels right.”

bgs@aspendailynews.com