The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Library construction in CB South continues
[ By Katherine Nettles ]The litigation between the Crested Butte South Property Owner’s Association and the Gunnison County Library District in Gunnison District Court over design review and construction of a new library in CB South may be approaching a resolution, with a hearing having wrapped up earlier this month and final “findings of fact” due this week before the court rules on next steps. Meanwhile, construction continues at the new library site in the commercial district of CB South.
The library district began construction on its new $10 million, 10,000-square-foot library in CB South last spring, but has been at odds with the CB South Property Owner’s Association (POA) for several months over the process of design approval for the special district’s project.
In August the CB South POA filed for a temporary restraining order against the library district asking that they be required to pause construction of the new library until the plans could undergo a formal review and approval from the POA.
District Court judge Kellie Starritt denied the motion but set a hearing which included testimony from both sides that concluded Tuesday, September 8.
According to the CB South POA, the library did not follow the required procedures of going through its Design Review Committee (DRC) review prior to beginning construction. However, the library district has maintained that it followed the Location and Extent Review process as required for public entities building public facilities and went ahead with breaking ground last spring.
As previously reported in the Crested Butte News, the library district also submitted materials for an application to go through the DRC in July, but the POA deemed the application incomplete, and after more disagreement over the application contents, the POA took the library district off its DRC meeting agenda. The library district stated that it provided all materials required for the application.
POA manager Derek Harwell reported this week that after this month’s extensive testimony from both sides, “The court proceedings are complete. On September 24 both parties must submit ‘Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law.’”
The submissions essentially replace closing arguments in a court hearing for the judge’s consideration.
Harwell predicted, “If the timing holds, there would seem a good chance that a decision would be delivered by the end of this month.”
Meanwhile, the new library has a foundation and utility infrastructure work appears to be humming along on the site. The construction was initially expected to be complete in late 2027.
