{"id":139472,"date":"2026-07-16T13:14:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T19:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dollar-store-ruling-prompts-montezuma-county-to-consider-land-use-code-revisions\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T14:56:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T20:56:23","slug":"dollar-store-ruling-prompts-montezuma-county-to-consider-land-use-code-revisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dollar-store-ruling-prompts-montezuma-county-to-consider-land-use-code-revisions\/","title":{"rendered":"Dollar store ruling prompts Montezuma County to consider land-use code revisions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Montezuma
Montezuma County commissioners discuss a possible review of the county\u2019s Land-Use Code during a meeting Tuesday. A district court criticized portions of the code while upholding the county\u2019s denial of a proposed Dollar General permit. (Anna Watson\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A Dollar General lawsuit may have broader implications for Montezuma County policy after a judge poked holes in a 85-page land-use code, saying it has weaknesses and is riddled with contradictions.<\/p>\n

The county ultimately won the yearslong legal battle at the district-court level after a July 8 ruling from 22nd Judicial District Court Judge Todd Plewe. Rather than treating it as the end of the road, commissioners are now opening the door to potentially revisit parts of the code.<\/p>\n

The case stems from Leaf Properties\u2019 aim to build a Dollar General at the corner of Colorado Highway 145 and County Road N between Cortez and Dolores.<\/p>\n

Commissioners twice denied the high-impact permit after finding it exceeded certain thresholds.<\/p>\n

One finding asserted the development could generate traffic to the excess \u2013 some 339 cars coming and going daily \u2013 which would result in an increase too dangerous for the intersection and rural neighbors surrounding it. Plewe concluded this \u201cstood alone\u201d as sufficient basis for denial in the July 8 order.<\/p>\n

Plewe ultimately upheld the commissioners\u2019 second application denial, concluding it was supported by competent evidence, Leaf Properties was afforded due process and the land-use code was properly applied. Leaf Properties attorney Andrew Peters said in an email Friday his client intends to mount an appeal to the higher court.<\/p>\n

While Plewe upheld the code, he had criticisms for it.<\/p>\n

He wrote: \u201cThe Montezuma County Land-Use Code is contradictory in places and contains inconsistencies. Arguably, the code is poor public policy; however, the court must set aside the temptation to decide this case on issues other than facts and the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
A Dollar General permit dispute in Montezuma County dates back to January 2024, when Leaf Properties submitted its first high-impact permit application. County commissioners denied the application in April 2024. A judge later overturned that decision because the county failed to issue written findings. After new hearings in June and July 2025, commissioners again voted 2-1 to deny the permit. (Anna Watson\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

County attorney Stephen Tarnowski told the commissioners Tuesday in an update they can consider the ruling \u201cthe best possible outcome.\u201d He said the board \u201cprevailed on all the arguments made,\u201d however, he felt the feedback on needing improvement was important and should be taken seriously.<\/p>\n

\"Tarnowski.
Tarnowski. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIt would be a worthwhile endeavor to look at the code with a hard look and say \u2018Does this need to be fixed or overhauled,\u2019\u201d Tarnowski said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Kent Lindsay asked if the court ruling offered any specifics.<\/p>\n

Tarnowski then described the \u201cuses-by-right\u201d dispute as one example, which surfaced during court.<\/p>\n

Leaf Properties argued under county code the dollar store should automatically forgo the high-impact permit process because its retail-sales use in a commercial-zoning district equaled use-by-right.<\/p>\n

Tarnowksi suggested the code could spell out the concept more clearly to avoid future ambiguities.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur argument was use-by-right ultimately isn\u2019t defined anywhere in state law, and it\u2019s also not defined specifically in our land-use code,\u201d Tarnowski said.<\/p>\n

He explained the argument was that use-by-right is allowable only if a proposal doesn\u2019t exceed any of the 33 threshold standards, which among many things deal with lighting or traffic and were codified by the original drafters to uphold Montezuma County\u2019s \u201crural character.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe term use-by-right in the code is clumsy,\u201d Plewe wrote, \u201cbut it does not invalidate the code or the high-impact process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
The Montezuma County Land-Use Code is separate from the county\u2019s 90s-era land-use comprehensive plan, both of which are available on the county\u2019s website. \u201cThe most fundamental issues addressed by the Montezuma County comprehensive plan involve the protection of private property rights and the protection of private property values,\u201d reads the comprehensive plan, adopted Jan. 6, 1997, by the Board of County Commissioners.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The commissioners agreed in three-weeks time they would put an item on the workshop agenda for longer discussion. Either partially editing it or an overhaul, Tarnowski said the process will be slow.<\/p>\n

The city of Cortez fully updated its land-use code during 2023-2025, which revamped policies first written in 1996.\u2028The purpose provided for the update in council documents was due to population growth, a need for a simpler review process, and ensuring standards supported housing needs.<\/p>\n

City documents stated the former code contained errors and inconsistencies.<\/p>\n

The rewrite held multiple public sessions and the final document contained 270 pages.<\/p>\n

Tarnowksi suggested Tuesday other options could be the incremental approach \u2013 similar to how language was updated to address renewable energy recently \u2013 or the county could look at Colorado Department of Local Affairs templates that are geared toward smaller counties.<\/p>\n

awatson@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judge rules for county but says \u2018arguably, the code is poor public policy\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":139473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[28,193,107,60,109,29,6419,76],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-139472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-headlines","tag-land-use","tag-laws","tag-montezuma-county","tag-montezuma-county-commissioner","tag-newsletter","tag-tj-trueanthem","tag-u-s-22nd-judicial-district"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139472"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139492,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139472\/revisions\/139492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139472"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=139472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}