La Plata County planning commissioners informally approved a draft of the land-use element of the county comprehensive plan on Thursday, with suggestions to re-examine the county’s dated designated planning areas.
“We’re looking at possibly one of the most important elements of this plan,” Planning Director Damian Peduto told commissioners. “It’s the hub that connects the various elements. In broad terms of land-use management systems, land planning and growth management – all of those are what we’re accomplishing with what we’ve done here.”
Planning staff members are about midway through a complete revision of the county comprehensive plan, an advisory document directing agricultural land use, oil and gas development, water, housing and more. Staff members presented updated elements incrementally to the Planning Commission.
The goal of the land-use segment is to develop and maintain a land-use planning system that accommodates multiple types of use.
Most county land isn’t governed by traditional zoning. Instead, in the mid-1990s, the county established land-use planning areas as advisory tools for nine districts. Today, there are 13, and only two – the Animas Valley and Crowbar Creek areas – are governed by regulatory, as opposed to advisory, zoning plans.
“Maybe it’s time to see if there’s impetus to bring the various district plans up to date,” Commissioner Tom Gorton said. “Maybe zoning for the rest of the county isn’t the answer, but (in Animas Valley), it has provided the most clarity to what someone can and can’t do in that area. The area plans differ dramatically depending on the demographic, but they’re the closest we have to thought-out public input of what the people in those areas want to see there. I’m wondering if there would be impetus to go back with this and see if there are changes in those communities.”
Peduto said the Planning Department intends to include the public in the process of revising the district plans.
“What we will have established is not only good land-use policy, but a land-use classification system,” he said. “The next question is how, where and if we would like to look at the potential for incorporating traditional zoning in areas where it makes sense.”
Peduto cited La Posta Road as an example.
The airport is the next item of business in the comprehensive plan.
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