Structures in Aspen older than 30 years will be subject to historical review before owners can alter or demolish them, according to an ordinance that went into effect Wednesday.
The emergency ordinance lowered the age for historic preservation of structures from 40-plus-years to 30 in an effort to preserve the city’s history.
“We’ve preserved almost everything left in town that had to do with with the Victorian era but nothing from the next 113 years,” said Amy Guthrie, city of Aspen historic preservation officer.
End of voluntary designation
She said 257 Victorian-era buildings built during the city’s first 13 years have been preserved, compared with 22 from years following.
“They need to be given the same treatment,” she said. “History didn’t stop here at the silver crash.”
Property owners who want to demolish, alter or add to a structure over 30 years old will have to complete an application for landmark review to determine historic merit.
If historic merit is established, the property owner will be granted incentives from the city, and will have to get approval before any major changes are made.
After 180 days, historic merit can be appealed to the City Council.
Property owners who do not qualify for historic merit receive certification that for the next five years their property has no historic potential. After five years, they would have to go through the process again.
The previous method for preservation usually relied on getting property owners to voluntarily designate their homes or buildings and negotiating preservation, Guthrie said.
An “authentic look and feel”
The new method treats any property over 30 years old as a potentially historic site until proved otherwise.
This flips the process in its head, said Councilman Dwayne Romero.
“Citizens have to prove to their government that their property is not historic,” he said.
Romero was the only member of the council to cast a dissenting vote.
While fundamentally in favor of preservation – he is the president of the Aspen Historic Society – Romero said he did not agree with the process used to put the ordinance in place.
“We failed the test of demonstrating a real emergency need,” he said.
The ordinance was pushed through on an emergency status for fear that lengthy discussions would cause a flood of requests for demolition before anything changed.
“It was all or nothing,” Aspen Mayor Mick Ireland said.
About 15 structures with historic potential have been lost to demolition since 2000, Ireland said.
He added: “One of the the things that makes Aspen such a special place and so valuable” is that “there’s actually buildings that have an authentic look and feel.”
Staff writer Simona Gallegos can be reached at 303-954-1555 or sgallegos@denverpost.com.
