The Carbondale Board of Trustees on Tuesday, Sept. 8, appointed one new member and one alternate to the Planning & Zoning Commission.
Following a public interview by the trustees, local architect Kyle Donath was appointed as P&Z’s newest member, while medical director Dustin Cole was appointed as an alternate. The two join P&Z Chair Jarrett Mork, Vice-Chair Jesse Garcia and members Kim Magee, Cindy Suplizio, Anne Krimmer and Franco Palumbo. They will also work with Planning Director Jared Barnes, Planner Ellie Peterson and Planning Tech Kae McDonald, the town’s P&Z staff members.
Kyle Donath
Donath hails from New England. He attended Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts, where he studied architecture.
After graduating in 2016, he worked for T*Rex Architex, before moving to Denver in June 2017 and taking a job as project manager for Pappas Architecture + Design. At Pappas, he designed single- and multi-family residential projects, as well as “light commercial projects.”
In October 2020, he moved to the Valley, taking a job at bg Architecture & Design, and became a partner at the firm this year. He leads design and documentation for single- and multi-family projects, as well as for hospitality and commercial projects. He coordinates the projects’ permitting and approval processes.
From November 2023 to May 2026, Donath also served as the president of the Carbondale South Home Owners Association.
The trustees asked him several questions about potential P&Z scenarios, issues and needs. The following questions and answers have been edited for brevity.
Trustee Colin Laird: You’ve been here five years, any thoughts on issues, planning issues? [In] Carbondale, what’s one of the biggest things we’re feeling?
Donath: Challenges and opportunities. The downtown North is going to be huge and probably transformational to the town, just with how large it is and how planted in downtown it is. There’s a million ways to execute a great design and great plan. I think it’s just about finding the one that resonates with the town. That’s probably the biggest one.
Trustee Jessica Robison: How would you deal with a land use application that has strong public opposition but complies with the town’s code?
Donath: I think it’s probably about … understanding why people disagree and seeing if they can better understand how maybe they do agree with elements of the project. Ultimately, it’s partially the town’s project and it’s partially the owner’s project, but striking that balance.
Trustee Christina Montemayor: Please share your thoughts on affordable housing and how Carbondale can address housing needs.
Donath: That’s probably the most important land use issue in our town. Ultimately, I think what makes Carbondale so cool is the population and our diversity that’s created our Carbondale funk. And without having housing that’s available to people of every demographic, you lose the depth of that. You lose the diversity. How to resolve that? Build more of it through creative means … I think approaching it through an example- and data-driven perspective is probably a route to success.
Dustin Cole
Cole is a Carbondale resident whose expertise lies in medicine. Cole went to medical school at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, where he became a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.), according to his resume.
He worked as a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation resident at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, as well as a quality fellow, among other duties.
Cole worked in Cortez from 2012 to 2015 as an interventional pain medicine physician at the Southwest Memorial Health System, before serving as medical director at the Valley View Hospital Brain Surgery and Comprehensive Spine Center in Glenwood Springs from 2015 to 2018.
Since 2018, he’s worked as interventional spine specialist at the Grand River Health System in Rifle, and has served as administrative director of Clinical Support Services at the location since 2020.
He is also currently completing a Masters of Business Administration and a Masters of Science in Healthcare Administration at Oklahoma State University’s Spears School of Business. The following public questions and answers have been edited for brevity.
Laird: Given your background, why P&Z?
Cole: At Grand River in Rifle, we passed a bond for a big medical office building … [Of] all the things I oversee, facilities happen to be the most impactful … How do they reflect the community? How do they enhance the care we give? How do they make people feel comfortable? … Ideally they reflect the community’s needs, but really they enhance that … How do we do it thoughtfully? How do we keep what makes us special without hamstringing what we need to do in terms of growth, affordability and the other things?
Robison: How do you approach a controversial land-use application that has strong public opposition but complies with the town’s code?
Cole: Getting curious before you get critical. Really understanding, what is that opposition? Taking the time to understand: What are people’s positions? Why do they have those positions? And invariably, I think you’re closer than where you start[ed] out. And if you take the time to understand, while it may not be palatable, I think people generally respond better.