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Comprehensive plan

Consistent public input is key to the effort’s success and our city’s future

The La Plata County Planning Commission has a very clear obligation – set forth by state law – to establish a plan for how the community grows into the future. The process by which this vision is established is best done inclusively, thoroughly and with significant input from partnering governmental entities and county residents from across the range of interests that shape our population.

And, as an iterative document, any such plan must be updated to reflect changing conditions, priorities, values, demographics and issues. The La Plata County Comprehensive Plan currently in place was adopted in 2001 – a rather moldy document, thanks to a failed attempt at rewriting it that began in 2009 and finally was killed in 2011. After three years of recovering from that painful collapse, the county is beginning anew, this time with a less-ambitious but nonetheless comprehensive approach. The public must get involved now and stay involved throughout the process.

The Planning Commission began its series of monthly plan-revision meetings in February, when it outlined its new comprehensive planning process that will use the 2001 plan as a starting point, revising each chapter to reflect the current demographic, environmental and political landscape. On Thursday, the second of the meetings – all to be held on the first Thursday of each month – will dive in to the work, examining growth trends for the county. The commission will take public comment at the meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. in the County Board Room at the courthouse.

These baseline figures are critical for residents to understand in that they place the need for comprehensive planning in a necessary context. The county’s population has been growing steadily over the last four decades and is not anticipated to stop in the years to come. Unincorporated La Plata County saw a 9,000-person increase between 2000-2010, and the state Department of Local Affairs projects that by 2040, the countywide population will have grown to 91,422 residents – from nearly 56,000 today. Given that – and the requisite land, water, infrastructure and employment required to sustain such a population – comprehensive planning is essential.

It particularly is so in a county as diverse as La Plata. That diversity, and the political positions that accompany it, are what derailed the most recent planning effort – a meltdown made all the more disappointing because so many plan opponents did not get involved until very late in the process. This time, that cannot be the case.

The Planning Commission is fulfilling its statutory obligation by crafting a meaningful comprehensive plan: “It is the duty of a county planning commission to make and adopt a master plan for the physical development of the unincorporated territory of the county.”

In doing so, the commission aims to provide the county a document that will “guide planned growth while protecting the environment and enhancing the lives of county residents.”

In order to do that, though, the commission needs consistent and meaningful public input throughout what is scheduled to be a year-long process that addresses various components in the existing comprehensive plan and updates them monthly.

Thursday’s meeting will consider the baseline growth trend assumptions. From there, the meetings will take on land use, infrastructure and transportation, housing, environmental resources, agriculture, the airport area, public safety, recreation and tourism and historic preservation. Each is an important component for life in La Plata County now. Guiding its transition into the future is critical for ensuring the county’s enduring quality of life. Get involved now in the comprehensive planning process.



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