Snowmass Council reviews Draw Site design plans, asks for more
Town hopes to present up to six designs to the public for review
Site Architects/Courtesy image
Snowmass Town Council will soon seek public feedback on a major workforce housing project.
They discussed three existing plans for the Draw Site with architects and contractors on Monday, deliberating among unit density, cost, and visual impact. This comes after the community approved the town’s use of up to $86 million to fund the workforce housing project uphill and adjacent to Town Hall in the November election.
“They will all be beautiful, desirable apartments no matter which way we go,” Snowmass Housing Director Betsy Crum said in the meeting.
Haselden Builders, JVA Consulting Engineers, Site Architects, and Rawley Design Planning presented a 79-unit option and two 59-unit options to council:
79 units
The 79-unit option contains a downhill, five-story building with 35 units and an uphill, six-story building with 44 units, according to the planners. The two buildings are separated by a courtyard with green space and outdoor amenities. A two-story, underground parking garage containing 111 spaces sits below the buildings.
The main entrance for vehicle drop off and pickup is on the front side of the first building, which faces Snowmass Village. A separated pedestrian path allows walkers and bikers to access the second building through the underground parking garage.
Of the three designs, the 79-unit sketch contains the most units, provides sufficient parking for tenants, and has rooftop outdoor space, according to the planners. But the design would have the greatest height, density, and mass; has the highest cost per unit; and requires a larger amount of excavation for the parking garage.
“I mean, I still really like the 79-unit project because I want to provide as much housing as we can as soon as we can,” Council member Susan Marolt said.
Council member Tom Fridstein said he thinks there is too much unit density in the 79-unit option.
59 units, surface parking
The 59-unit option lowers each building by a level and eliminates the two-story, underground parking garage beneath the buildings, according to the planners. The front building would contain a one-story interior parking floor beneath the units. The design also contains 58 spaces of surface parking in between the two buildings, giving the total complex roughly 80 parking spaces.
The building has a lower height, density, and mass than the 79-unit option. It also has the lowest total cost and lowest cost per unit of all the designs and makes it easier for tenants and visitors to access the building because of the surface parking, according to the planners.
Planners said, however, the design would require more impactful construction to the existing site, could have an approach road steep enough to require snow melting technology, and the views for many tenants would be of the parking lot.
“We have worked to really try to bring this option up to a level that can be compared, but it does need a little further development to truly be compared to the 79-unit option,” Site Architects Principal Architect Erica Golden said.
59 units, underground parking
The second 59-unit proposal is similar to the 79-unit option but with one less story on either building. The roads and access to the buildings remain the same as the 79-unit option, according to the planners. The option has a similar central courtyard between the two buildings, and a parking garage in between and beneath the buildings, which is also smaller than the 79-unit option.
The design minimizes hillside cuts needed to construct the building and has a lower total project cost than the 79-unit option. But it contains the highest per-unit cost of the three designs and less parking than the 79-unit design.
Gustafson said she likes how the final design fits with the landscape.
“The way that it’s set back — that is getting closer to the mass and scale that I feel is more appropriate for Snowmass,” she said.
Haselden Builders predicts the 79-unit building will cost $80 million, with a cost per unit of just over $1 million, and a cost per square foot of $518. They predict the first 59-unit design to cost $57 million, with a cost per unit of $960,000, and a cost per square foot of $583. They predict the second 59-unit design to cost $64 million, with a cost per unit of $1.1 million, and a cost per square foot of $515.
Town Manager Clint Kinney raised the point that Snowmass would still need to fund a $12-$15 million gap if council decides on the 79-unit option and would likely look to county or state tax funding. The rest of the design, as well as the entirety of the other two designs, would be funded annually with $3 million from the Snowmass tourism tax as well as with income from rent payments to the town.
Each design would contain 60% one-bedroom units, 30% two-bedroom units, and 10% three-bedroom units, according to Golden.
The council decided to reconvene with the planners, contractors, and architects in early February to further discuss designs and may subsequently go to the public for design review. They asked the teams to add three additional sketches to the existing designs:
- A design of similar composition to the first 59-unit design with surface parking, but with the top floor of the front building moved to the back building
- A design similar to the second 59-unit design, but with an additional level added to the back building to increase the total unit count of the building
- A single building design with as many floors as possible given the 66-foot zoning height restriction, moved back into the hillside
Skyler Stark-Ragsdale can be reached at 970-429-9152 or email him at sstark-ragsdale@aspentimes.com.
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