Press Release by the community of Glenwood Springs
Glenwood Springs, CO — On April 28, 2026, the Glenwood Springs Planning and Zoning Commission will hold a public hearing on Special Use Permit No. 4-04, authorizing an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility located at 100 Midland Avenue. Earlier this year, public records requests exposed that the facility has operated for more than two decades without a valid Certificate of Occupancy and without required safety inspections under detention facility standards. The Planning and Zoning Commission has been directed by the City Attorney to focus their decision narrowly on whether or not detainees have been held longer than the 12-hour window indicated in the Special Use Permit application from 2003. Records obtained by The Deportation Data Project document multiple violations of the 12-hour limit at the “Glenwood Springs Hold Room” (GSCHOLD) between 2022 and 2026.
Although the Planning and Zoning Commission has been told to focus its decision on one narrow aspect of the detention center’s operations over the last twenty-one years, multiple other concerning issues have not yet been addressed by the City. The City’s recent response and inspection do not resolve this issue. The City inspected this facility as an office instead of what it actually is: a detention facility with an entirely different set of legally required safety standards.
The facility is classified under Group I-3 occupancy, the most restrictive category under the International Building Code, reserved for facilities where people are held in custody or under supervision and cannot freely leave. It requires rigorous safety standards due to the occupants being restrained and unable to self-evacuate in an emergency. In a fire, a power failure, or a structural emergency in a Group I-3 classified facility, the legal responsibility for every person inside falls on the building official, the facility operator, and the municipality that authorized the use. Documentation shows these standards were never verified or certified prior to operation. An inspection conducted in February 2026 identified multiple “critical deficiencies” representing specific life safety risks. A second fire inspection conducted on April 9th, 2026, indicates the unit passed inspection, but does not address specific Group I-3 requirements under IFC Section 408.3. Instead, it appears to have been held to the less stringent Group B requirements for general office use.
Documented life safety risks include:
● Emergency lighting failure, rendering egress paths invisible during a power loss or smoke event.
● Sprinkler systems with unverified activation capability, in a facility where restrained occupants cannot move away from a fire on their own initiative.
● An evacuation plan that provides no procedure for moving restrained detainees through smoke barriers, horizontal exits, or remote egress paths, all required under IFC Section 408 for Group I-3 facilities.
● Locking hardware that has never been verified to release under emergency conditions.
● No documented coordination agreement with the Glenwood Springs Fire Department for a facility holding a restrained population.
City records confirm that a Temporary Certificate of Occupancy issued in December 2004 expired in June 2005 and was never finalized. The City’s March 5, 2026, press statement called the 21-year absence of a Certificate of Occupancy “clerical or administrative oversight.” A valid Certificate of Occupancy requires a building to pass final inspections and meet the specific life safety requirements for its designated occupancy classification. In the case of 100 Midland Ave., Suites 110 and 210, the expiration of Temporary Certificate of Occupancy No. M.79 on June 12,
2005 means those critical inspections and safety requirements were never satisfied. Despite operating as detention, there is no record of the city ever inspecting this facility for compliance with the strict standards applicable to Group I-3 detention occupancy, let alone certifying that it meets those requirements.
At least 100 people were detained at 100 Midland Avenue during 2025 alone. Every one of them was held in a building where the City of Glenwood Springs had never verified that the fire suppression systems functioned, the doors would unlock in an emergency, or that staff had a lawful and compliant plan to evacuate them.
Community members are calling on the Commission to take immediate action by withholding permit renewal, enforcing building safety codes, and initiating a formal investigation into the facility’s compliance history.
The April 28 hearing represents the first formal opportunity in twenty-one years for public review and accountability.
A more detailed community report below:
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