After months of wrangling, The Broadmoor hotel got what seems like the final OK Tuesday night on a request that it be allowed to erect a gigantic 40,000-square-foot tent every spring on its grounds, without having to ask permission from the city.

The City Council approved the hotel’s request on a 5-1 vote, upholding an earlier decision by the city Planning Commission. The hotel had asked that it be allowed to bypass the permitting process, which had held up organizing for the annual Space Symposium that the hotel hosts each spring.

In an attempt to pacify angry neighbors of The Broadmoor, the council required that the hotel install at least 20 trees around its border, to help shield the hotel’s four-acre parking lot where the tent is erected. The trees must be no more than 20 feet apart, and between eight and 10 feet high.

Dennis Keegan, who has lived across the street from The Broadmoor for more than three decades, is one resident who sees a fenced-in parking lot every time he looks out his front door. When he first moved into his house, he said, the area was covered in grass and flowers.

He told council members the neighborhood has been “raped.”

“I’ve put up with their development for 32 years, and I’ve never said a word until now,” said Keegan, who is a former public relations director of the U.S. Olympic Committee. “I no longer want to be a neighbor of The Broadmoor.”

Several residents joined Keegan in furiously protesting that the hotel has been encroaching further and further into the neighborhood. The parking lot, which is only partially paved, was constructed by the hotel in 2003 without permission from the city. That grated on many of the hotel’s neighbors, and the tent was the last straw.

A formal complaint was filed in March by Hannah Polmer, whose home is bordered on two sides by The Broadmoor. Attorney Howard Alpern, who represents Polmer, argued that the parking lot, and therefore the tent, are illegal because they don’t measure up to city requirements.

Alpern expressed frustration at the council’s vote, and charged that the hotel and its patrons are held to a lower standard than the rest of the city.

John Maynard, an urban design specialist who spoke for The Broadmoor, said the tent was erected because the Space Symposium had grown to the point that the hotel itself couldn’t hold all the participants.

The tent was a logical solution, he said, and a perfectly legal one. The same standards they used in building the lot are used by other institutions around the city, including Colorado College.

Maynard added that aside from the income it brings to the hotel, the symposium brings in $25 million each year to the local economy.

The battle may not be over, though. Alpern said Polmer is considering taking the matter to court.

“She’s going to sleep on it,” Alpern said.

—

Contact John Schroyer: 476-4825

Twitter @Johnschroyer

Facebook Gazette John Schroyer