Back to square one – sort of.
After a failed two-year, $700,000 process of developing a comprehensive plan for the purposes of writing a new land-use code, followed by a decision to write new regulations without the plan, La Plata County commissioners now say they’ll instead amend the current land-use code.
“Last year we were all very much in synch (about a new land-use code),” said Kellie Hotter, commissioner. “But to me, today is a different day.”
The decision came Thursday after a daylong workshop with the county’s new interim planning director, consultant Gary Suiter, and a second consultant who is an expert in zoning.
During the session, Suiter recommended commissioners amend the code rather than start anew.
“We think this approach will be less onerous than taking on an entirely new land-use code,” Suiter told commissioners.
The process of writing a new code would be contentious in the community and time consuming for the county, he said.
“Just in four weeks, I see the inefficiencies of the system,” Suiter said, adding that changes to improve the problems could be made.
Consultant Don Elliott, who made no specific recommendations for the county and was only there to educate commissioners about several popular types of zoning, said counties and cities often think things have changed so much that a fresh start is needed when it really is not.
Typically, population is the biggest change in a community, but guiding beliefs and history remain. Most often, a “hybrid” approach to zoning and dealing with land-use regulations works best for communities, he said.
It is something commissioners said the county already was heading toward with plans of considering more specific rules in “urbanizing” areas of the county, such as the Grandview and La Posta developments, to better harmonize city and county rules in areas likely to be annexed into Durango in the future.
Commissioners Hotter and Bobby Lieb said they felt they needed to rebuild the community’s trust. An amendment process could do that in a way that a wholesale adoption of a new set of regulations months or years down the road would not, they said.
“We’re fresh off the battlefield, and it’s not just us, our community is,” Hotter said. “We’re going to get so much farther with small successes.”
Commissioner Wally White disagreed and said he’d like to see a new code created and parts of the shelved comprehensive plan used in it.
“It is what it is,” White said as the meeting drew to a close and was again the lone voice of dissent on the planning decision.
County staff will now comb through the current land-use rules to identify problems and inefficiencies. They’ll return to commissioners with recommendations for changes and additions they feel are needed. Commissioners then will prioritize how to tackle amendments and consider zoning options for some areas of the county, they said.
Changes should be approved and adopted in “bite-size pieces” in the months and years ahead, Suiter said.
And to ensure a “harmonious” code that can withstand legal challenges, County Attorney Sheryl Rogers said a final amendment should be done at the end of the process tying all the work together. Commissioners may decide at that time to officially repeal the code and re-enact the newly amended version to formalize the conclusion of the process.
Hotter and Lieb said they were ready to move forward.
“We can’t keep shooting for the stars,” Hotter said. “We need to do something.”
