The Roundup | Lift One impacts, dam problems, mobile home protections

Here at Aspen Journalism, we’re having a great summer season, with a diverse array of in-depth and investigative news highlighting our region’s most significant issues — our water infrastructure and planning for a hotter, drier future; tenuous housing security facing many mobile home park residents; the impacts of Aspen’s massive Lift One corridor redevelopment coming into focus; and what happens when the “voice of wildlife” takes early retirement. To catch up on all of that and more, read on below. And thank you, as always, for supporting the valley’s only nonprofit, investigative news origination.

– Curtis Wackerle

Editor and Executive Director

Aspen Journalism

Judge rules for River District in dispute with Denver Water over dam repairs

A judge sided with the Colorado River Water Conservation District in a dispute with Denver Water over repairs to Ritschard Dam near Kremmling, where officials are monitoring slow-moving settling and deformation impacts that have left the dam holding back the 66,000-acre-foot Wolcott Mountain Reservoir upstream of Kremmling with a “conditionally satisfactory” safety rating. Denver Water had accused the district of delaying work until after it was set to become a co-owner in 2020, making it share costs. The court rejected that claim, and the district is now seeking nearly $773,000 in legal fees. The ruling comes as simmering tensions between West Slope and Front Range water interests play out over the River District’s effort to purchase the Shoshone hydropower rights as an insurance policy for west-flowing water.

As investors buy up properties, residents and advocates of affordable housing push back

Residents in Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley are urging stronger protections for mobile home park tenants as investors snap up properties. With registered parks dropping from about 900 statewide in 2019 to 761 in 2024, rising lot rents and redevelopment threaten long-term residents. Groups in Carbondale and Basalt are forming collectives to bid on parks and seek public financing. Advocates say existing laws are a start, but call for expanded rights and rent stabilization to preserve affordable housing. This story is also published in Spanish.

Lift One development churns through an epic permit review, but will the city’s ‘most complex build’ cause our World Cup future to ski off course?

The two landmark lodging projects that squeaked by voters in 2019, when they were known as the Lift One Lodge and the Gorsuch Haus, are churning through an epic permit review process for what may be “the most complex build that the city of Aspen has ever seen,” in the words of one municipal official. With the Lift One Lodge now rebranded as the Chalet Alpina, and the Gorsuch project flipping to the global luxury resort operator Aman, it’s down to the nitty-gritty details for 320,000  square feet of lodging, residential and commercial space spread across two and a half city blocks, plus a new chairlift replacing Lift 1A, underground parking and restoration of historic Skier’s Chalet buildings. Officials are considering phasing various parts of the approval, which might enable utility installation and restoration work to begin this summer, but major construction is still at a season or two away. When it arrives, skiers will be left without a lift of the west side of Aspen Mountain for one or two winters. Kaya Williams chronicles how we got here, and brings us up to speed on where plans are heading, in part one of a two-part series on the state of the Lift One corridor redevelopment.

White reporting the above story, Kaya Williams got an interesting comment from an International Ski Federation spokesperson, which called into question whether all the planned development clustered at the mountain’s base might impede FIS’s ability to stage World Cup races on the hallowed track that ends just above where the Aman hotel will park. Given that securing the future of the World Cup racing in Aspen was a central tenet in redevelopment advocates’ campaign, the statement was either a record-skip moment, or totally expected from those who remain skeptical of the project. Williams unpacks it all, and learns that the local organizing committee responsible for attracting the top-tier races thinks everything is going to be fine, as long as neighbors, the city and the wider community actively support continuing Aspen’s World Cup skiing legacy.

Nyland may be stepping down, but he’s not stepping out

Phil Nyland, a wildlife biologist for 23 years on the Aspen-Sopris Ranger District of the White River National Forest, has taken early retirement, raising concerns about the future of habitat stewardship in the region. Known for his collaborative work on prescribed burns, bighorn sheep recovery, and wildlife management, Nyland’s departure leaves a critical vacancy the Forest Service does not plan to fill. Local conservation partners say his loss could impact future ecological planning, and organizations such as Roaring Fork Valley Wildfire Collaborative are being called upon to step up. But even after retirement, Nyland volunteers his time helping out on local trails, and he is starting a consulting business. 

Colorado River water may be shared based on supply, not demand

In a long-awaited breakthrough in negotiations over how to share future water shortages, the seven Colorado River basin states are advancing a “supply-driven” concept that ties water releases from Lake Powell to a percentage of the three-year average natural flow at Lee Ferry — shifting focus from demand to hydrology. The proposal would create separate water budgets for the Upper and Lower Basins, helping avoid legal conflict over the 1922 compact. While the precise ratio that would determine how much water could be released remains undecided, the plan aims to ensure the Lower Basin lives within its water means. Key deadlines arrive in 2025–26.⁠

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