GREENWOOD VILLAGE — Greenwood Village officials unanimously denied a zoning variance Thursday night requested by a couple who want to move a barn — in danger of demolition — to their property.
Marilyn and Richard Fay, who live at 8 Meadowview Lane, requested the variance from the Board of Adjustments and Appeals to allow the structure on their land. But after hearing comment Thursday night, the request was rejected.
“The barn gets turned into splinters,” Marilyn Fay said. “It’s pathetic.”
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.
The 30-foot-tall barn, which features a gabled roof clad in brown shingles, towers above nearby homes.
The Fays said the barn, which was probably built between 1910 and 1920, is a neighborhood icon. It was moved to its current location, 16 Brookside Drive, in the 1960s. Their corral fronts the entrance to the subdivision, off East Belleview Avenue.
They rallied some support for the move in the Belleview Acres subdivision.
The board’s staff recommended that members refuse the variance, saying the former dairy barn is too big and would change the visual character of the neighborhood.
Marilyn Fay said they will look into whether they can appeal the board’s decision, but there isn’t much time left, she said, since the barn will be destroyed in March.
“It’s time is coming soon,” Fay said.
Either way, she says she will have a new barn built on her property that will meet city code and requirements and not require a zoning variance.
“We will put a new barn on our property,” she said.
Carlos Illescas contributed to this report.
