Town casts wary eye on yurts

BOULDER, Garfield County — As the sun sets on the quiet desert town of Boulder, the Ryan family discusses town politics around the kitchen table in the middle of the round yurt they call home.

Mike Ryan lights a kerosene camping lantern. The lantern flames jump several feet into the air at first, but they quickly die down, and he hangs the lantern from a hook below the clear skylight at the peak of the yurt's dome. The light gives the yurt an amber glow that makes the structure visible across neighboring horse pastures.

His wife, Carrie Ryan, laughs as she describes the family's encounters with several town members, who until recently had little objection to the Ryans' decision to live in a yurt.

But that has changed in recent months. The Ryans first moved to their yurt in 1995, and at that time, they were the only family in town living in a yurt. About a year and a half ago, more yurts began popping up around town. About 13 yurts now stand in and around Boulder — most of them are used as outbuildings rather than homes, but a handful are being used as residences.

And with the growing popularity of yurts as homes have come complaints from residents and town officials who say the yurts don't meet building code and are unsanitary, smelly, bad for property values and flat-out ugly.

"It was never an issue, nobody has ever said anything," Carrie Ryan says. "I was just in shock, after all these years, that people had these complaints."

The Boulder Township Planning Commission passed a recommendation on July 8 stating that as long as the yurts follow building codes, they will be accepted as an alternative form of housing. The Boulder Town Council plans to study the issue further before making a final decision, but town officials say they could introduce an ordinance banning yurts within the town.

Gladys LaFervre, a council member, says she is concerned about the building-code violations because those codes are designed to prevent diseases that can arise from unsanitary conditions.

Bill Muse, the town's mayor and a local land developer, says no yurts currently in town, including the Ryan home, meet the building code. To meet the code, he says, the yurts must have flushing toilets and running water — septic tanks like the Ryans have are not enough.

"Any alternative form needs to come under the building code," he says. "We are bound by the law."

Muse agrees with the planning commission recommendation accepting the yurts, but he says about 25 percent of the 250 or so town residents want to see yurts gone for good. They include Wendell Roundy, a council member and lifelong resident.