By Shannon Lukens.
The old metal Union Pacific building off 13th Street in Steamboat Springs, that has collapsed, should hopefully be demolished soon.
The roof collapsed last March, under all of the heavy snow. The address is at 1123 Old Stock Road.
But the unusable building is still there.
We reached out to Union Pacific last Friday, Oct. 20, for the status of tearing down the building. Mike Jaixen is the Senior Manager of Communications for Union Pacific. He said they were ready to tear it down but they were waiting on approval from city and state officials.
He wrote, “Thank you for reaching out to Union Pacific. We have hired a contractor to demolish this building in Steamboat Springs, but the work is still awaiting approval from state and city officials. Once we have the proper permits to move forward, we’ll be able to proceed with demolition of this building.”
Then we checked with Routt County to see what the status was on approving that permit request for demolition. Todd Carr with the Building Department with Routt County asked us to fill out a CORA request form to access the documents through a legal process. CORA stands for Colorado Open Records Act.
Routt County then sent to Steamboat Radio News a copy of a Notice of Violation that was sent to Union Pacific Railroad in Salt Lake City, dated July 12, 2023, saying they were in violation of the City of Steamboat Springs Revised Municipal Code.
It said things like the structure was “unsafe, insanitary, or deficient.”
It said that it is a half-collapsed building, “with lack of protection around the structure on this property. This structure needs to obtain a building permit for either its demo or for its repair. In the interim a temporary fencing will need to be installed to keep people away, specifically on the core trail side of the structure.”
Then the Notice of Violation mentioned possible criminal penalties.
It was signed by Greg Jaeger, the Code Compliance Officer for Routt County and the City of Steamboat Springs.
Todd Carr with the Routt County Building Department did confirm that the City of Steamboat Springs had been in contact with the railroad over the summer. He said they had two hurdles.
“First, they had to remove a lot of equipment and items from the building plus coordinate with a structural engineer in doing so safely. They also had to apply for the State Demo Permit which included Asbestos Testing and a report, that is the permit we have no control over locally but it must be followed. The last check in we had with the Railroad they told us it was their goal to bring the building down before winter or the new year, so Greg Jaeger our Code Compliance Officer and I agreed to these conditions and have been monitoring for progress on a monthly basis checking in with the Railroad. So they have been in communication with us and we have not pursued any legal actions to date.”
No legal action, but no action on the building with the collapsed roof.
Since Mike Jaixen had told us that they were all set to demolish the building, and they were just waiting for approval from the city, we let him know that Union Pacific had actually been sent a Notice of Violation back in July. And no request for a demo permit had been filed.
Jaixen did confirm on Tuesday of this week, Oct. 24, that Union Pacific had been in regular communication with the City of Steamboat Springs throughout the process.
Then he let us know, as did Todd Carr with Routt County, that Union Pacific just submitted the request for the city permit the day before, on Monday, Oct. 23.
Todd Carr concurred on Tuesday afternoon, “They applied late yesterday for our local demo permit, so we now received this demo permit application and it’s under review by all City Departments and the Building Department.”
Jaixen said he expects a response from the state in the next couple of weeks. “Once we have all the necessary approvals, demolition work can then proceed.”
We’ll let you know when it happens.