The Jan. 18 news story headlined “La Plata County commissioners direct staff on oil and gas setbacks” was a concise and informative article about enlarging the setbacks distances from wells and “different kinds of infrastructure.” Most of these distances were increased from 200 feet to 500 feet.
Unfortunately, the story made no mention of the “reciprocal setbacks” in Sec. 70-6, which conversely prohibit any landowner within 500 feet of a well pad (of which there are 2,382 producing wells in the county after subtracting 491 wells operated on and by the Southern Ute Tribe, per Mineralanswers.com). So any landowner with property within 500 feet of an existing gas well is now prohibited from building a dwelling, etc., within that setback.
The difference between the current 200 feet no-build radius and the proposed 500 feet no-build radius amounts to an additional 35,000 acres in the county being prohibited from construction. How many landowners does this impact and of those impacted, how many are aware of this? I have no idea, but many. No one has looked into that, as far as I can tell.
How will this impact housing development and affordability in the county? How many acres in the “growth hubs” as defined in the land use codes does this affect? My family’s property is in that area and we certainly will have to make less than desirable decisions if ever developed.
Contact county commissioners regarding your concerns and make comments at forms.laplata.co.us/Forms/BOCC PC MeetingComments.
Frank Sinton
Durango
