Snowmass takes strong shift on workforce housing design

Snowmass Town Council shifted its latest workforce housing vision to a one-building, 64-unit design. 

It decided in a Monday meeting to pursue the Draw Site design — or a similar design iteration — rather than a series of two building designs, though some Snowmass council members still had qualms about the mass and scale of the project.

“None of us are going to feel any of those are perfect,” Council member Tom Fridstein said. “But I think option 6 (the 64-unit design) touches a lot of the points that we’ve talked about.”

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The design was one of a series that were presented to council by Site Architects, and follows the November resident vote giving Snowmass the go-ahead to build up to 79 units of workforce housing at the Draw Site, located uphill and adjacent to town hall, with up to $86 million funding.

Unlike the 79-unit option, which included a five- and six-story building separated by a two-story underground parking garage, the 64-unit design leaves more room for open space and yields unobstructed views with its singular structure, according to town staff.

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The design combines the two buildings into a broader, six-story building with an extended “leg” jutting away from Snowmass Village off the design’s northwest side, according to Site Architects.

It includes an underground parking garage that begins under the downhill side of the building and stretches past the front wall of the design to minimize site excavation. The design contains 97 total spaces for the project between covered ground-level parking.

The site retains the benefits of a large courtyard with its ample outdoor space, minimizing disturbance to nearby trails, according to town staff. It would also include ground-level EV charging stations for guests. 

But at 66.5 feet it is the tallest of all the options reviewed by council and has a higher per-unit cost than the 79-unit option. It would also require significant time for more thorough design and engineering, as it is less developed than the other options.

“I think the biggest concern for me is the height,” Mayor Alyssa Shenk said. 

Council member Britta Gustafson said she would be more open to the design if there was a way to reduce the mass and scope of the front of the building by adding units to the obscured “leg” coming off the northwest side. 

“I think that would be a good investment and a good creative exercise,” she said.

The 64-unit design is projected to cost $64.6 million with a per-unit cost of roughly $1.1 million, while the 79-unit structure was projected to cost $79.8 million with a $1 million per-unit cost.

Though the 64-unit design poses a slightly higher per-unit cost than the 79-unit design, it would decrease the finding gap the town currently faces with the 79-unit design.

The 79-unit option would leave a funding gap of $15.4 million while the 64-unit option would leave the town with a funding gap of $11.4 million. Apart from the gap, the majority of project funds come from the town’s annual tourism tax and net income from rents.

Site Architects Principal Architect Erica Golden said she is confident they will be able to refine the mass and scale of the design and reduce its overall cost in further sketches, while keeping the building’s 64-unit count.

“I think it’s all moving in the right direction,” Fridstein said.

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