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Snowmass approves new designs, land use for historic child care facility

The Little Red School House first opened in the 1890s

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Snow covers the grounds of The Little Red Schoolhouse child care center.
Kaya Williams/The Snowmass Sun archive photo

Snowmass is another step closer to increasing the childcare capacity of the town.

Town Council approved on Tuesday an architectural design for an additional building on the plot of land containing the Little Red School House and Community Playground. The approval allows for the construction of a building nearly seven times the area of the existing Little Red — doubling the child-care capacity of the site from 30 to 60 students. It also allows for the expansion of the parking lot from roughly 16 to as many as 38 spaces to account for the increase in traffic.

The new design would be constructed directly south of Little Red, which provides care for children ages one to five. The historic building would not be altered by the construction.

The approval comes as Snowmass and the surrounding area are in dire need of child care.

There are over 90 children on the waitlist for childcare between Woody Creek Kids Inc.’s three locations, which include Little Red on Owl Creek Road, Christina Holloway, owner and director of Woody Creek Kids Inc., told The Aspen Times on Thursday.


“We’ll be able to offer several more spots a day,” Holloway said of the new building at Little Red. “There’s just such a need for (children of) Snowmass residents and Snowmass employees.”

The other two locations include Woody Creek Kids in Woody Creek and Tiny Pines Preschool in the Aspen Airport Business Center. 

The new building at Little Red would also be a much needed upgrade from the current infrastructure, according to Holloway. The historic Little Red building opened in the 1890s. The second building, referred to as the auxiliary building by new construction designers Land and Shelter Architecture and Planning, was an old bank that was converted and moved onto the site in the 1980s, Holloway said.

“So that’s one of the greatest parts of the new building, is just to have a building that’s built for what we’re doing,” she said. 

They would be able to offer infant care in the new building, she added.

The new building would be 5,650 square feet, offering over three times the space than the existing Little Red and auxiliary buildings combined. The building would have a height of 20 feet six inches from the first floor to the North Side eve. Seventy-nine percent of the entire site, including the existing Community Playground, would remain open space. The auxiliary building would be demolished once the new design is built. 

Land and Shelter Architecture and Planning presented sketches of the design to be built on the Little Red School House site Tuesday. The top two designs are views of the building from the North and the South, respectively. The bottom two are views form the East and the West of the entire lot, with the Little Red School House, the new design, and the auxiliary building drawn from downhill up.
Land and Shelter Architecture and Planning/Courtesy Photo

Council members raised concerns on Tuesday about accessibility to the Little Red site given the increased capacity and resulting traffic. 

Council member Cecily DeAngelo worried the parking capacity in the design could be lacking. She also advocated for upgraded sidewalks entering the lot to improve accessibility for families taking shuttles and buses. 

“I think both those things are of concern and should be considered as we do this update,” she said. 

As it stands, the contractors plan to create 26 parking spots in phase one of construction, according to Taylor Higgins, architect for Land and Shelter. But they could add an additional twelve spaces at a later date, should council deem it necessary.

Funding the construction could also prove a challenge.

The town plans to allot $6.5 million in their 2025 budget for the new construction but must attain an additional $2 million in grant funding or from other sources to meet the $8.5 million projected cost of the building. 

Though the council approved the land use without amendments, Town Manager Clint Kinney reminded members that there is a long road ahead.

“This is the easy part; the hard part’s going to be getting the contractor to be able to do it and raising the grant funds,” Kinney said. “So there’s a lot of those questions that remain.”

When speaking with The Aspen Times on Thursday, Kinney did not estimate when construction would begin, but he said it would not be this year.

Skyler Stark-Ragsdale can be reached at 970-429-9152 or email him at sstark-ragsdale@aspentimes.com.

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