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Western Slope leaders congregated in Basalt on Tuesday to discuss the current state of the town of Basalt and the entire Roaring Fork Valley.
Topics at the 2024 Basalt Chamber Annual Meeting included discussions about Pitkin County’s economy, infrastructure improvements, affordable housing developments, mountain town tourism, childcare needs, and mental health resources.
State of the Chamber
Basalt Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Kris Mattera has been involved at the state level throughout 2024.
She testified at the Cell Phone Connectivity Committee, a bipartisan interim effort at the statehouse, to inform lawmakers of what can be done for cell connection statewide and on Colorado Highway 82.
Pitkin County commissioners recently voted to put 10 cell towers in nine locations on Buttermilk, Highlands, and Aspen Mountain.
“Because when talking about the dead zones on Highway 82, we want to keep the backcountry, backcountry,” Mattera said. “Everyone seems to agree on that, but it’s how can we have cell service when you have a car accident, then you can’t call for help on your own state highway.”
Mattera also plans on releasing where the Basalt Chamber, which is comprised of 424 members from Aspen to Rifle, stands on local and state November ballot questions. The largest industries in the chambers are architecture and construction services, retail, health, wellness and fitness, and business services.
On the state level, the Colorado Tourism Office has a statewide initiative for destination stewardship. Mattera said Colorado is “probably the first in the nation to have a statewide plan.”
Destination stewardship, or management, is about attracting the right visitors to the Roaring Fork Valley, rather than just blindly promoting. It also looks at high-value visitors with low impact, such as the international market.
Mattera said international visitors spend five times more than a domestic visitor, and they are more likely to come during the week.
“They’re not skiing on the weekends, so they’re a great market to attract,” she said. “It’s focused on, how do we have a really good experience for both our visitors and our residents without detracting from the resident experience? And I think it’s the first time you’re actually seeing it through that lens.”
As a part of this initiative, there are 12 strategies the town will work on. Mattera is focusing on strategies nine and 11, which are supporting regional advocacy, funding for workforce housing, and advancing regional collaboration, as well as resourcing for childcare and early childhood education.
“Because if you don’t have places for your tourism workers to live, it’s really hard to have a tourism industry,” she said.
State of the Town
Mayor David Knight said 2023 was a year of transition, and now 2024 is a year of execution.
Affordable housing was top of mind as he spoke to attendees at the Rocky Mountain Institute Tuesday morning.
Through 2021 bonds that came out of the Basalt Forward 2030 process, affordable housing received $6 million. Affordable housing efforts include the purchase of four deed-restricted lots in Stott’s Mill and six deed-restricted units at Basalt Center Circle. The town also continues to work on Parcel 2E and the rugby adjacent lot in Willits.
In addition to new builds, the town conducted a housing study that revealed a mix of units for all incomes is needed. Some solutions to these needs are a deed buydown program, adding new AMI income categories in the Housing Guideline, creating a dedicated funding source, and an ADU incentive program.
Childcare was another priority for the town. Stott’s Mill Daycare was just completed, which has a capacity for 45-50 kids. The daycare materialized with help from a $800,000 state grant and $400,000 from Pitkin County.
The town has budgeted $80,000 per year toward Stott’s Mill, as well as $150,000 per year to the Hope Center for mental health services, like financial assistance for therapy, the HOPE line, and crisis response.
Other things Knight noted were the Midland Avenue Streetscape Project, Willits Lane Connectivity and Wayfinding Project, a wildfire collaborative, a composting pilot program, broadband infrastructure with a new conduit in east and west Basalt, and solar installation at five respective locations. The solar installation was possible due to another 2021 bond.
Responding to a question about what keeps him up at night about Basalt, Knight said he wants to avoid a “cookie cutter vibe” in Basalt, an area where independently-owned businesses are abundant. When residents complain about improvements, Knight said that he thinks what makes Basalt special is the fact that the current improvements to the town are complementary to what makes Basalt what it is.
“You can feel it when you go out to have a coffee at Craft, go to a concert,” he said. “I want the community to be enhanced. We have this vibrant ecosystem of things to do, and businesses and activities out there. How can we keep that?”
State of the Economy
Dr. Nathan Perry, an economist and professor of economics at Colorado Mesa University, presented a State of the Economy for Garfield, Eagle, and Pitkin counties.
Garfield, Eagle, and Pitkin counties are expected to grow. Population growth is caused by births, deaths, and migration, and Pitkin County has low birth and death rates.
Colorado is a younger state compared to the rest of the nation, and Western Slope towns are generally seeing increased migration, specifically from the Denver area due to increasing prices, Perry said. This, however, is not the case for Pitkin County since the cost of living is expensive.
“My prediction is that the boring states are going to be the trend for this next generation,” Perry said. “They can’t afford a home when they hit 30. They’re going to move to Arkansas, they’re going to move to Missouri. They’re going to move to places that are affordable.”
Perry went on to say the data does not show income disparity in some mountain towns. This is why county level data may not always be representative of what is going on. There are pockets of communities that struggle to survive and other pockets of wealthy people that make the data look great, Perry said.
“The Aspen area was known to be wealthy 10 years ago, so I need to move there so I can catch some of this wealthiness,” he said. “That’s how it works, right? I just move there, and the wealthiness will happen to me.”
Pitkin County saw a 10% decrease in GDP, or gross domestic product, which is the measure of growth in the United States, in 2020 due to COVID. The following year in 2021 was a recovery year with a 13% increase, and there was an 8% increase in 2022, Perry said.
The county’s per capita income is $217,482, which has almost doubled in 10 years. The median household income, however, is $111,291. The per capita number is pushing the average up because of upper class residents, Perry said.
Perry said the per capita number tells him “that there’s a group of extraordinarily rich people who live in Aspen, which this is news to nobody.”
Poverty in Pitkin County is 6-8%, which Perry said is “pretty good,” and has been on a downward trend since 2012.
Jobs in Pitkin County number 26,501 in 2022. Most jobs come from the accommodation and food service industries.
The employment number is lower at 11,000. This number is lower because some people work several jobs. This all jobs available in an area, and employment only includes individuals who are employed. It does not consider how many jobs one person may have. Workers who commute also skew these numbers.
Regan Mertz can be reached at 970-429-9153 or rmertz@aspentimes.com.