{"id":21989,"date":"2025-06-03T00:48:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T00:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-supreme-court-says-durango-railroad-must-follow-county-land-use-codes\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:10:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:10:22","slug":"colorado-supreme-court-says-durango-railroad-must-follow-county-land-use-codes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-supreme-court-says-durango-railroad-must-follow-county-land-use-codes\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Supreme Court says Durango railroad must follow county land-use codes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Passengers
Passengers line up to board the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad at the Rockwood Station. The train offers trips through the canyons of the San Juan National Forest, a great ride for family members visiting from out of town.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled against the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad last week, upholding the Colorado Public Utilities Commission\u2019s ruling that La Plata County has authority under its land-use code to regulate the railroad.<\/p>\n

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rockwood station became the D&SNG\u2019s main arrival and departure point for the Cascade Canyon Express tourist excursion. The station, located about 15 miles north of Durango, offered a popular boarding and de-boarding option between Durango and Silverton.<\/p>\n

To accommodate an influx of passengers, D&SNG enlarged Rockwood station\u2019s parking lot, removed a fence, and added portable toilets and tents for passengers waiting to board the train. The county issued several warnings that such changes violated its land-use code, and the D&SNG would need to either reverse the changes or undergo proper land-use process.<\/p>\n

D&SNG and its parent company, American Heritage Railways Inc., ignored the warnings and subsequently sued the county, arguing that it lacked jurisdiction to regulate the railroad\u2019s development.<\/p>\n

The state Supreme Court<\/a> upheld the PUC\u2019s ruling that the county had authority to regulate the station\u2019s expanded parking lot as an \u201cextension of its existing facility, plant, or system,\u201d which would require \u201ca new certificate of public convenience and necessity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe County is pleased the Colorado Supreme Court affirmed the County\u2019s and the PUC\u2019s interpretation of the law and the applicability of the County\u2019s land use regulations,\u201d said La Plata County Attorney Sheryl Rogers in a statement. \u201cThe County respects the historical and economic importance of the Train to our community but also believes that adherence to our land use regulations is essential to the health, safety and welfare of the entire community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cascade Canyon Express route between Rockwood and Cascade Wye began operating in 2019 and quickly gained popularity in 2020.<\/p>\n

The county believed the route was a temporary alternative, but when D&SNG announced it would run trains through Rockwood in 2021, the community raised concerns. The train brought up to 600 passengers to the neighborhood daily, causing residents to complain<\/a> about traffic congestion, littering and increased fire risk, among other concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were quite literally hundreds of cars,\u201d said resident Jeff Beckel, who has lived in the Rockwood area for over a decade.<\/p>\n

Beckel was concerned that tourists riding the train were unfamiliar with the area, which let to several problems. He recalled the area being flooded with trash after a food truck was set up to serve waiting passengers, raising concern about attracting bears.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of our neighbors put a fire out on the side of the road,\u201d said John McAward, president of the Rockwood Estates Homeowners Association. \u201cSomeone threw a cigarette butt out of a car driving to the station.\u201d<\/p>\n

The influx of people became so disruptive that McAward said they put up a gate to their subdivision to keep people out.<\/p>\n

Now that Rockwood station is no longer used as a primary point of arrival and departure, Beckel and McAward said Rockwood quickly returned to normal. Very few passengers board the train at the Rockwood station, and the vast majority board in town.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love the train,\u201d McAward said. \u201cWe just had an issue with the train bringing a large portion of its business here as a departure place. This place isn\u2019t zoned for that kind of business.\u201d<\/p>\n

The D&SNG did not respond to requests for comment for this story.<\/p>\n

Richa Sharma is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at rsharma@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

D&SNG began using Rockwood station as main arrival, departure point<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[488,170,28,1680,1512,1373],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-21989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-civil","tag-durango-and-silverton-narrow-gauge-railroad-co","tag-headlines","tag-la-plata-county-commissioners","tag-la-plata-county-government","tag-litigation"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21989"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77537,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21989\/revisions\/77537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21989"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=21989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}