The Roundup | Important milestones for long-simmering issues

This week at Aspen Journalism, our coverage includes significant milestones along tracks we have been following for years. It reminds us how decisions about land use, water and policy can shape community long after the votes are counted or the contracts signed.

Paul Andersen’s story about his experience climbing Colorado’s only privately owned 14er, Culebra Peak, concludes his six-part “Crisis of the Commons” series, which has examined the long and complicated history of public lands in the United States. The final installment brings that history into sharp focus: What happens when land that has long been understood as part of a shared landscape becomes private?

Looking over to South Aspen Street and the Lift One corridor, decades of debate and speculation came to head earlier this month, when two luxury hotel developers, the Aspen Skiing Co. and the city of Aspen released a long-awaited construction sequencing plan, signaling that what has been described as the most complex build in the history of modern Aspen is soon to begin in earnest. One upshot of Kaya Williams’ latest coverage is that the expected length of time without a chairlift accessing Aspen Mountain in the Lift One neighborhood is projected to be at least three winter seasons — so good thing the new Nell-Bell lift will be coming online to provide gondola redundancy. Another key thing we learned from the reporting concerns the guardrails the parties agreed to, imposing potentially millions in fines if one of the signers causes undue delay to the completion of a new chairlift or the hotels.

Last month, data editor Laurine Lassalle broke down the latest permit trends influencing short-term rentals in the upper valley. That coverage set the stage for this week’s developments, as Pitkin County commissioners met to discuss recommendations for altering the county’s licensing program, which has been beset by shrinking numbers and concerns about loopholes. Lassalle’s latest STR reporting sheds light on major changes that are being proposed, as well as growing concerns about properties that use 30-day leases for guests actually booking shorter stays in order to circumvent tax and permit requirements. 

On the Colorado River, Heather Sackett’s reporting from the 15-mile reach between Palisade and the Gunnison River — identified as a critical stretch for endangered fish – shows the consequences of this year’s hydrology sitting on top of the century-old framework by which a limited water supply is divided among agriculture, communities and the river itself. Even with conservation and additional water contributions, farmers face uncertainty about deliveries later this season, while the river itself reaches unprecedented low flows. 

And from Eleanor Bennett and the social justice desk, the final story in this edition of The Roundup takes a comprehensive look what is being done to keep housing affordable for those most vulnerable to displacement, with coverage of a frank conversation earlier this month centering lessons learned from a spate of recent efforts to save mobile home parks. It adds another chapter to the larger saga of how a community manages scarce housing resources in a place where supply and demand continues to outpace what local residents can afford.

Taken together, these stories are about more than land, housing or water  — they illuminate the circumstances of our community in the deep context they deserve, as competing interests pull on the same set of limited resources.

One last note: We are thrilled to be taking part in Aspen Public Radio’s Nonprofit Volunteer Fair on Wednesday, Aug. 26, so stop by the Glenwood Springs Branch Library from 2-5 p.m. for a chance to meet some of our team members and learn more about AJ’s mission. And, if our free community event on September 11 with Al Letson, host of the Reveal podcast and radio show, isn’t in your calendar, learn more and RSVP here.

Thank you for reading and supporting Aspen Journalism.

– Curtis Wackerle
Editor and Executive Director
Aspen Journalism

Pitkin County is considering major changes to its short-term rental program as the number of licensed properties continues to decline under regulations adopted to limit vacation rentals and their impacts on housing and communities. The county has lost more than one-quarter of its STR permits since the program began in 2022, while rules requiring a rental history dating to 2017-22 now prevent many new applicants from obtaining licenses. A consultant recommends making more properties eligible while capping permits by geographic zone and awarding them through a lottery. Commissioners are weighing whether the changes can make the program more sustainable while continuing to limit the size of the STR market.
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After waiting two years for a permit, Paul Andersen was part of a group that climbed Culebra Peak, Colorado’s only privately owned 14er, located in the San Luis Valley. The experience that brought Andersen up the mountain illustrated the tensions that exist in the void between historically shared lands and private property. With the duties owed to descendants of those who once held hunting and grazing rights to the peak and its surrounding acres the subject of decades of strife, the newest owner, a Texas billionaire, has enacted their own management practices. These include restricted public access to the 14,047-foot summit with hiking permits, fees and limited climbing days, while fencing has fueled conflict with local residents, as well as families with access rights dating to the 1840s. The ongoing effort to balance private ownership with court-ordered traditional access underscores the lasting community impact of privatizing lands once treated as a commons.  This is the final installment of a multipart series launched by Aspen Journalism in 2025 on the long history of public lands in the United States.
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With Aspen Mountain’s Lift 1A in the process of removal and construction moving forward in Aspen’s Lift One corridor, skiers will not have a lift serving the ski area’s western base until the 2029-30 ski season. A new construction sequencing agreement brings together Aspen Skiing Co., the city of Aspen and developers of Aman Aspen and Chalet Alpina to coordinate work on the two lodging projects, historic Skiers Chalet buildings, parks and public infrastructure, ski-area facilities, restaurants, gathering spaces and a snowsports museum.

The upgraded chairlift was the centerpiece of the project narrowly approved by Aspen voters in 2019. The redevelopment of the Lift One corridor has since grown around that voter-approved lift, bringing together the ski-area improvements with significant private development and public amenities.
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The 15-mile reach of the Colorado River between Palisade and the Gunnison River is a chronically depleted stretch of river that also provides critical habitat for endangered fish.

During a recent six-and-a-half-mile float, paddlers encountered flows of about 93 cfs – about 70% of which was available thanks to the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program. Without the program’s water contribution to instream flow, the Colorado River would drop to about 25 cfs.

Nearly all of the river’s flows are being diverted to the Grand Valley’s agricultural producers. Despite what feels like a heavy draw from the river, users have reduced their diversions from 1,950 cfs to 1,450 cfs to conserve water for later in the season.

Even with additional stored water being contributed by water users, including water stored in Ruedi Reservoir, Grand Valley Water Users Association officials say they cannot guarantee deliveries to farmers after Sept. 1.
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The Roaring Fork and Colorado River valleys face a growing affordable-housing crisis as housing costs outpace local incomes and mobile home park residents risk displacement when the land beneath their homes goes up for sale. A collaborative model brings residents, local governments, nonprofits, lenders, businesses and private donors together to purchase parks and convert them to deed-restricted, resident-owned communities. The model has helped preserve three parks, but local leaders say the park-by-park approach is not sustainable. Expanding the strategy will require longer timelines, stronger protections and financing tools that can support more communities facing displacement.
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