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GREENWOOD VILLAGE — The neighborhood wood-and-stucco barn is, to some residents here, a thing of beauty worth saving.

But to Mark von Engeln, who lives across the street from a couple hoping to relocate it to their Belleview Acres property, it is a “monstrosity.”

“It is too big,” von Engeln said. “It would ruin my view and bounce the noise from (East) Belleview (Avenue) into my front yard.”

Whether the barn will be moved or demolished could be decided tonight when the city’s Board of Adjustments and Appeals hears a zoning-variance request from Marilyn and Richard Fay, who live at 8 Meadowview Lane.

The board’s staff has recommended that members refuse the variance, saying the former dairy barn is too big and would change the visual character of the neighborhood. Other neighbors also oppose the move.

The clock on the barn’s fate began ticking when George Andrew Bjurman sold the land it sits on for $1.2 million. The new owner, listed in property records as the Alison Moskoff Revocable Trust, plans to raze the structure and build a home. The new owner couldn’t be reached for comment.

A sign on the Fays’ property, about a block from the barn, says, “Save our barn. We must move it or lose it.”

The Fays declined to comment.

But in papers filed with the Greenwood Village community development department, the couple say the barn, which was probably built between 1910 and 1920, has become a neighborhood icon. It was moved to its current location, 16 Brookside Drive, in the 1960s.

The Fays’ corral fronts the entrance to the subdivision, off East Belleview Avenue.

“Locating the barn near the entry to the neighborhood will be a landmark for (Belleview Acres’) identity. A site east of the barn would be available for an attractive entry kiosk,” they said in their variance request.

The 30-foot-tall barn, which features a gabled roof clad in brown shingles, towers above nearby homes.

The Fays estimate that moving the barn to their property would cost them almost $100,000.

University of Denver law student Andy Astuno, 24, has lived across the street from the barn his entire life.

“It has sentimental value,” he said Wednesday.

He plans to voice his support for moving the structure at tonight’s meeting. “It is something that the community shares; it is a symbol.”

Not everyone agrees.

“Granted, it is an old building and it has a great deal of charm, but does it belong on somebody’s property?” said Aimee L. Steinbock, a neighbor of the Fays. “I don’t know that I want to see the building destroyed, but the place is not appropriate for it. It belongs in a pasture.”

Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com