Log In


Reset Password
News Education Local News Nation & World New Mexico

County fine-tunes land-use plan

Implementation will be considered in November

La Plata County planning commissioners combed through all work done on the county’s comprehensive land-use plan since February with plans to consider implementation next month.

Over the past seven months, the commission has updated the introduction, growth trends, agriculture, infrastructure, extractive resources and renewable-energy elements of the plan.

On Thursday, the commission met to fine-tune sections that have been reviewed thus far with the intention of voting next month.

Commissioner Frank Lockwood wanted to expand on a section under extractive resources and renewable energy to specifically encourage the development of community solar gardens as an example of renewable energy.

The commission also discussed the purely advisory nature of the document. As such, the plan foregoes words like “shall” and “will” in favor of “should” and “could.”

County Planning Director Damian Peduto said the plan will involve cooperation from departments across the board.

“This is a comprehensive plan, so it could easily bleed into many departments,” he said. “At some juncture, we need to create a capital-improvements element, and in that case, public works and facilities should be heavily involved.”

Next month’s meeting will delve into implementation. Commissioners will be tasked with reviewing each of the completed sections and deciding how to take action.

When that is complete, the plan will be certified to the county commissioners, who must approve the plan, and then shared with each of La Plata County’s municipalities.

Each element of the plan can be viewed under the Comprehensive Plan section on the La Plata County website’s planning department page, where residents are also provided an opportunity to submit comments.

Planning commissioners have invested between one and three months examining each section. They are scheduled to take up land use in January. The completed plan will also have sections to address the airport area, public safety, environmental resources, housing, recreation and tourism, and historic preservation.

A completion date is anticipated in 2017.

jpace@durangoherald.com

Jul 7, 2016
Affordable housing high priority in La Plata County’s comprehensive plan


Reader Comments