Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — Steamboat Springs City Council stopped just short of tabling the new Pine Grove Medical Building Tuesday, and ultimately voted 5-1 to approve the project.

The 6,000-square-foot office building will be built at the corner of Pine Grove Road and Taco Bell Drive (a private road). The site is less than a mile from the new Yampa Valley Medical Center. Dr. Rosanne Iversen and her husband, Alan Rosenthal, are among the members of the limited liability company developing the property.

Planning Commission reviewed the project on April 13 and voted 5-3 to recommend approval after considerable debate about the building's architecture. City Council had some of the same concerns and Councilwoman Arianthtettner made a motion to table the project and ask the developers to tweak the architectural details in the roof before returning.

Councilman Paul Strong said he liked the building overall, but was hung up on the roof line.

"It's a good-looking building, but it's a huge building with that roof line," Strong said.

The building is proposed to be 120 feet long with a "bi-pitched" roof intended to echo the lines of the More Barn, not far away, and the traditional ranch house that houses an insurance agency on Pine Grove Road, Rosenthal told City Council. The building's bi-pitched roof starts out from the eaves with one pitch, then inclines to a steeper pitch up to the peak of the roof.

But Council President Kevin Bennett felt two large dormers on each side of the roof weren't enough to break up the unbroken line of the peak of the roof.

"This is a very heavily trafficked area we need to up the ante there," Councilwoman Kathy Connell said.

Rosenthal stood up to defend the design of Steamboat architect Bob McHugh and succeeded in reversing the prevailing opinion about the project.

"The roof line is one of the things that we feeling strongly about," Rosenthal said. "We think it is architecturally correct. We feel it is not overwhelming. We worked hard to get to this point and we spent a lot of money to get to this point. This has nothing to do with trying to cut corners."

After looking at a perspective drawing of the building, however, council members changed their minds. Bennett announced that he had reversed his position, and Stettner subsequently withdrew her motion. A motion to approve the project passed quickly with only Councilman Jim Engelken dissenting. He had asked several questions about how many medical office buildings are currently being developed in the city, and said he voted against Pine Grove Medical for "land use concerns."

To reach Tom Ross call 871-4210, or e-mail tomross@amigo.net