Council vote backs developer’s control of old Boulder City Hospital

The fate of the old Boulder City Hospital now rests solely in the hands of owner and developer Randy Schams, who wants to demolish the historic building and construct homes on the property.

Members of the Boulder City Council voted 5-0 Tuesday to uphold the decision of the Planning Commission that Schams' demolition permit was obtained correctly. The council's vote finalizes the Planning Commission's vote from Oct. 21.

"This procedure started out irregularly," Historic Boulder City Foundation representative and attorney John Hawley said. "Nothing in the record shows that there was any general notice to anyone that the particular property was for sale. There was no sign on the property."

The basis of the foundation's argument was that the city failed to meet five criteria required by a zoning ordinance for the permit application process to be considered legal. The city then had as many as 45 days to complete the process, which Boulder City completed in 21 days.

The five areas the foundation said Boulder City did not complete involved providing a historical record, reviewing the condition of the building to determine the demolition's impact on the neighborhood, allowing the historical committee to review the permit, making the owner aware of economic incentives to rehabilitate the building, and encouraging the property owner not to demolish the building.

Community Development Director Brok Armantrout said the city followed all five steps correctly.

Hawley questioned why Boulder City allowed Schams to present his permit to the city's Historic Preservation Commission to review, even though the property still was in escrow, meaning Schams was not the legal owner at the time of the presentation.

He said Schams' meeting with the comission was in June, nearly six weeks before his acquisition of the hospital, which was built in 1931.

No law prevents the city from bringing Schams' bid in front of the Preservation Commission while the building is in escrow, according to City Attorney Dave Olsen, who also said no part of city code requires the process to be done in a certain order.

Hawley again brought up the issue of naturally occurring asbestos, arguing that demolishing the building will cause harm to all of Boulder City, not only residents directly next to the hospital.

But Olsen said: "The one thing we all know is that we don't know what kind of effect naturally occurring asbestos will have on the city. The reality is, there's no kind of evidence to support naturally occurring asbestos is a health danger. There's a big effort here in trying to scare everyone into thinking naturally occurring asbestos is going to kill us all."

City Hall was full as about a dozen members from the community expressed their disdain for the demolition permit process.

Mayor Rod Woodbury said he has heard no "hard evidence" indicating that the permit application was not filed correctly.

"There were lots of innuendo and seeds of doubt, and maybe that just means we need better processes," he said. "I'm committed to trying to find better processes to preserve our history."

Contact reporter Randy Faehnrich at rfaehnrich@bouldercityreview.com or 702-586-9401. Find him on Twitter: @RandyFaehnrich