Wedding war tears apart Aspen town: New York couple's extravagant plans including a custom built chapel and 27,000 square foot marquee causes bitter backlash from locals

Getting hitched: Alexandra Steel and James (pictured at a New York event in 2012) are tying the knot in an elaborate Aspen wedding on Saturday

Elaborate: A chapel, 27,000-square-foot tent and dance floor is being built on an Aspen mountaintop for the wedding of Alexandra Steel (left) and James Scott (right)

The Aspen Times reported that scaffolding flooring, service tents and other temporary structures are also being built on the meadow, requiring hundreds of trips up Little Annie Road by service trucks and employee vehicles.

'What’s happening right now is over-the-top concerning anything that’s ever happened on the Little Annie Basin,' Glenn Horn, Little Annie Homeowners Association spokesman, told The Aspen Times at Wednesday's Pitkin Board of County Commissioners meeting.

'The impacts will be felt with the vegetation and ground recovery. There’s been no traffic control on the Little Annie Road, which is designated by the county as a primitive road.

'There was no notice to the neighbors about the impact of all the activity. There’s no type of erosion control. Last week, one neighbor counted 50 huge trucks in one day accessing the road up to the basin.'

Cindy Houben, director of the Pitkin County Community Development Department, said the pristine area could take years to rejuvenate after such a large-scale event.

'They’re not doing anything illegal, but the intensity of this event is extraordinary. It’s quite the ordeal,'
Houben told The Aspen Times.

'There’s a lot of concern regarding the recovery of the basin after this event. It’s a sub-alpine environment. Recovery in that area could take years.'

Backlash: Environmentally conscious residents are outraged a couple is building a dance floor, 27,000-square foot tent and a temporary chapel on a rural meadow at Little Annie Basin near Aspen Mountain, which they say will cause traffic and damage the area

Opposition: Residents say the scaffolding erected in preparation for the planned June 14 wedding of Alex Steel, daughter of Aspen Institute chairman Robert Steel, at the top of Little Annie Basin, near Aspen, Colorado is bad for the environment

Father: Robert Steel, Aspen Institute chairman and former NYC Deputy Mayor for Economic Development, is the father of Alexandra Steel who is getting married on Saturday in Aspen

Wedding planner John Miller, who has owned the property for 32 years, acknowledged in a letter to the editor that the wedding has turned out to be a bigger project than he originally thought.

However he said the constructions were temporary and urged his neighbors to show patience toward a family that has contributed much to the community.

'Can we just live and let live, sit back and enjoy where we are privileged to live?' he wrote in a letter published by the Aspen Times.

Neighbors say the dispute stems from a loophole in zoning regulations.

In April, wedding planner John Miller initially approached Pitkin County planning staff seeking a temporary commercial-use permit for the wedding.

Staff said they didn't support the permit because 'of the scale and intensity of the operation'.

However a month later, Miller wrote to the county saying the wedding would be 'free of charge' after he found out who the bride's father was. This exempted him from seeking a commercial license, according to The Aspen Times.

Alexandra Steel, a Brown graduate, is the daughter of Robert Steel, chairman of the Aspen Institute and former Deputy Mayor for Economic Development for The City of New York.

She and her fiance live in New York and attend numerous society events. 

Pete Stouffer, who has lived on the Little Annie Basin side of Aspen Mountain for 25 years, said he couldn't believe anyone involved with the Aspen Institute would be a part of such a large-scale event in a rural and remote designated area.

'I think that someone that’s had the opportunity to see the beauty, the character and will of our community and still pull something like this off is incomprehensible to me,' Stouffer said. 'This person is not unaware, and they’re still doing this. That’s what bothers me as much as this event actually happening.'