Anyone who owns land or is thinking about purchasing land immediately outside of Durango city limits may want to pay attention to almost two dozen land-use code changes being proposed by local government officials.
La Plata and Durango officials are scheduled to meet today to discuss the latest draft agreement on joint land-use planning.
The intergovernmental agreement is part of three land-use efforts the county is pursuing. It’s working with the city on “transitional area development standards,” or in layman’s terms, development standards that would apply to areas immediately outside city limits where the city may one day annex. The county also is looking at revising its current countywide land-use codes.
County officials want property owners to easily read, understand and use the local land-use code. So, it’s considering making more than 20 changes.
La Plata officials decided to revamp existing countywide laws during work on the transitional area standards.
“Our staff looked at what the code said and believed it was appropriate to update provisions in the code in general that they discovered while working on the transitional area development standards,” said Julie Westendorff, chairwoman of the board of county commissioners.
For example, County Planning Director Damian Peduto said his staff members rewrote the current code on buffering requirements and added incentives for businesses to offer bicycle parking. The proposed language would allow businesses to reduce one-car parking space for each four bicycle spaces.
“We added a lot of clarity to the engineering guidelines and standards,” Peduto said. “We tried to clean up and fix all the things that we recognized over time have been difficult to work with.”
While the county used its existing code as a basis for possible changes, the transitional area development standards are newly created. Durango and county officials have worked on these rules so new projects built outside the city limits would eventually be ready for annexation into Durango and be eligible for city services, such as water.
The related agreement between the city and the county lays out each government body’s terms and conditions. Friday’s draft included language on water service, an issue that came up in the negotiations but wasn’t reduced to writing. In Friday’s version, the county agreed to encourage city water connection where Durango is willing to serve.
City councilors and county commissioners will meet in a joint session at 4 p.m. today at La Plata County Courthouse, 1060 E. Second Ave., Durango.
smueller@durangoherald.com
