Aspen Lumberyard Affordable Housing | Roaring Fork Engineering

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Aspen Lumberyard Affordable Housing

Engineering the Largest Affordable Housing Development in Aspen’s History

The Aspen Lumberyard housing project is an important pillar for Aspen’s future. At 287 proposed units across three large residential buildings, this development represents the most ambitious affordable housing undertaking Aspen has ever pursued. The investment includes a $400 million program designed to meaningfully expand the city’s workforce housing supply and address a shortage that shapes every aspect of life in the valley. Roaring Fork Engineering has been part of this project since 2019. Through two architecture teams and a change in developer, RFE has remained the one consistent thread in the project’s history, carrying knowledge and continuity from the earliest concepts through the construction that began in 2025. Our work included feasibility studies, infrastructure, and intersection with CDOT.

Challenges & highlights

The Lumberyard site is located directly across from the Aspen airport on a 12-acre parcel. Its scale and visibility have made it one of the most publicly debated projects in recent Aspen history. Moving through City Council approvals required years of community engagement, careful navigation of competing interests, and a process that gave residents and stakeholders the opportunity to be heard while maintaining forward progress.

The infrastructure program is enormous. New water lines, new sewer mains, stormwater systems, and utilities of every type are being designed and installed to support the three buildings and their associated programming. A pedestrian and bicycle underpass at the site entrance eliminates conflict between residents, cyclists, and vehicles using the State Highway access. This feature required Colorado DOT permitting, a new traffic signal on a state highway, and extensive utility relocation to accommodate the structure.

Relocating those utilities is among the most technically demanding elements of the project. The underpass alignment conflicts with major communications and power infrastructure serving the broader Aspen area, including fiber and electrical systems. Coordinating the relocation and switchover of these systems required detailed phasing plans to execute the transitions without disruption to active service.

Gorman Development, a nationally recognized affordable housing developer, is the project’s developer of record. Entitlements were secured after a multi-year approval process through the City of Aspen.

The results

This project is currently underway. We broke ground in early 2025. The entitlement process alone — securing approval for a project of this scale, complexity, and public significance — represents a substantial outcome, one that required sustained technical leadership, stakeholder coordination, and design discipline over multiple years.

When complete, the Lumberyard will deliver 287 units of workforce housing to a community that needs them. It will ease the commute burden that strains Aspen’s infrastructure every morning and evening, allow more workers to live closer to the jobs they hold, and strengthen the foundation that makes the community function. RFE’s work ensures the infrastructure supporting those units is designed to the standard the project and the community demands.

Elevation: 7,908

Location: Aspen, CO

Initial Feasibility Study
Infrastructure
Intersection with CDOT

Build infrastructure that holds up

If your municipality is planning roadway improvements, utility expansions, or system upgrades, we are ready to support your team.