Neighbors have beefs about new bus barn
CARBONDALE – Neighborhood opposition may impede the Roaring Fork School District’s plans to put a new bus barn serving Carbondale and Basalt on a site roughly midway between the two towns.The relocation of the bus-barn facilities, proposed for a four-acre parcel of land adjacent to the intersection of Highway 82 and County Road 100, is part of a districtwide facilities upgrade authorized by voters in November.School district officials met with the Garfield County Planning Commission on Jan. 12, as required by state law, to inform the commissioners of their plans. But state law also dictates that the county has almost no authority over the school district’s building plans, because the district is a political subdivision of the state and is exempt from county oversight.One member of the planning commission, Colin Laird, said the proposed bus barn is not in line with the county’s land use code or master plan, because it is an industrial use on land surrounded by residential subdivisions.But superintendent Fred Wall noted this week that the site, owned by heavy equipment operator Ronald Troxel, has been used for industrial purposes in the past, so industrial use should present no problem now for the neighborhood. He added, however, that the district might have to rethink its plans if acceptable solutions to the neighbors’ objections cannot be found.The proposal will be discussed at a public hearing at 6 p.m. Jan. 26 as part of the next regular meeting of the Re-1 School Board. The meeting will be at the district offices, 1405 Grand Ave., in Glenwood Springs. For more on this story, please see this week’s Valley Journal, on newsstands in Carbondale, Basalt and Glenwood Springs.

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