Talking about land use eventually leads to the issue of water.
The La Plata County Board of Commissioners used its work session Wednesday to review issues in an intergovernmental agreement, including city water service in areas just outside Durango city limits.
City and county officials expect to meet next week to continue negotiating the agreement and joint land-use standards. They’re aiming to meet a deadline next month.
County Attorney Sheryl Rogers briefed the board on the latest draft of the contract on joint land planning. She said she recommended against adding wording that required the county to oppose creating a water district.
“This was like the lightning rod for dissatisfaction with the current IGA,” she said. “Because if you were in certain tiers, you weren’t supposed to have private sewer and water systems, but, yet, the city could choose not to serve you and then we would oppose water districts.”
Rogers said some folks felt they were “in a no man’s land where they couldn’t get water from anybody.”
City Attorney David Smith said uncertainty over water service wouldn’t be a problem in the new IGA because it applies to different areas that will be annexed into the city or served by city water.
“The map that we have was basically designed to encompass only properties that were either immediately adjacent or very close to city infrastructure that could provide water,” Smith said. “The difficulty, if we don’t have a policy statement from the board, we’ve got to plan infrastructure in terms of where are we going to serve and how much we’re going to serve.”
The draft also removed a city obligation to annex roads that touch or provide main access to large new developments, including multi-family housing, mobile-home parks, mixed-use space and churches, along with specific existing roads. Durango officials agreed to remove a clause that forced the county to comply with the city Comprehensive Plan, which plots future community growth.
“That was a big piece that we did not believe was legally defensible,” Rogers said.
The agreement keeps the Joint Planning Commission, made up of both Durango and La Plata planning commissioners who decide on the new development applications.
The board also reviewed transitional development standards created for a joint planning area that encompasses Grandview on the east side of town to La Posta Road on the south.
“It’s an intermediary step,” Durango City Manager Ron LeBlanc said. “It basically gets us from the rural undeveloped to the urban standard.”
smueller@durangoherald.com
