Work finished quietly on Sept. 3 on the extractive resources part of updating the county's 2001 comprehensive plan.

County Planning Director Damian Peduto has noted that the 2001 plan had a mere half page on extractive resources, so plannng staffers had to create this from scratch. The update covers 15 pages of background information, goals, objectives and strategies.

"The planning staff did an extraordinary job over the last three months going from nothing to 15 pages," he said. This section covers oil and gas, gold, silver, and coal mining, and gravel mining, the mining most visible to many county residents.

The discussion came after a month of news coverage of the Gold King mine spill above Silverton. Private planner Brian Kimmell, who represents applicants in county land use review, said mining is now highly regulated, and the county has assistance from many other government agencies to provide data.

"What they are really looking at is, can you put it back in shape (after mining), and is it environmentally sound, with no hazard to people downstream," Kimmell said. "The situation in Silverton was because you didn't have that oversight in those days. ... I don't think people should be afraid of mining. We all use concrete," which depends on sand and gravel mined from gravel pits.

Discussion included potential county use of 1041 powers to regulate these activities. Those are powers created by the state and granted to local governments, Peduto said. "You have to go through a process to enable them. There are specific things they can be used for, including hardrock mining. We are exploring that."

He called 1041 a useful tool for the county, an alternative to class 2 land use review, which has limitations in terms of these types of projects, including utility expansion. Alamosa County has used 1041 to review large-scale solar gardens, he said. "With 1041 we can isolate regulations geared to the use. It will be more efficient and effective for the county and the applicant. We don't see it as additional. We see it as a parallel permitting track."

Peduto continued, "We recently took a field trip to Alamosa" to look at their large-scale solar farms. "It's a revenue generating industry for them." They are reviewed with 1041 powers so that the regulations match those particular impacts, he said. "It's focussed to the use. Industry responds positively because it's designed for them."

Since the early 1990s, the county has been heavily dependent on revenue from coalbed methane production. Asked about the future prospects for that, Peduto said, "We don't have all the answers. The concern has come up. All the arrows point to a declining resource, and then someone comes up with a new technology and it shoots back up again. ... We've heard from various sources that the resource is enormous, but it's in pockets that are hard to get to with the technology."

He cited the need for diversification instead of being so dependent on one revenue source. "Solar is the way Alamosa County has found to diversify... The question is, can we start to build in some of these alternatives."

Peduto clarified that this discussion of regulating solar only applies to large-scale installations, not someone putting some solar panels on their building. But planning commissioners will need to determine a threshhold for what constitutes a large-scale installation.

County planning commissioners and planning staffers have been working on comp plan updates since February, with meetings the first Thursday each month. The process is scheduled to continue into 2017.

"Once we finish the comp plan, the planning commission will review it in terms of does it justify regulations," planning commission chair Jim Tencza said. "There are elements in here that we know will need additional tweaking. It's not put on a shelf. It's just as active as the land use code."

The Oct. 1 meeting will review everything done since February for any changes before they are certified to the county commissioners for their comments. Elements covered so far are the introduction and growth trends, agriculture, infrastructure, and extractive resources. Comp plan updates are online at http://co.laplata.co.us/departments_and_elected_officials/planning/comprehensive_plan. There also is a link to submit comments.