{"id":13406,"date":"2026-02-20T17:25:05","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T00:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bayfield-town-board-approves-annexation-of-100-acre-ranch-plans-to-consider-annexing-another\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:36:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:36:27","slug":"bayfield-town-board-approves-annexation-of-100-acre-ranch-plans-to-consider-annexing-another","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bayfield-town-board-approves-annexation-of-100-acre-ranch-plans-to-consider-annexing-another\/","title":{"rendered":"Bayfield town board approves annexation of 100-acre ranch, plans to consider annexing another"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Five
Five chuck wagons cook on Saturday for the Chuckwagon Rendezvous hosted by the La Plata-Archuleta Cattlemen's Association at LePlatt's Pond on L-J Ranch near Bayfield. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Bayfield town board Tuesday officially approved the annexation of a roughly 94-acre working cattle ranch and plans to consider annexing another ranch in March.<\/p>\n

By comparison, the town itself is 1,054 acres, according to the 2020 U.S. Census, which means the town grew by about 9%.<\/p>\n

During Tuesday\u2019s meeting, trustees approved the annexation of L-J Ranch, a working cattle ranch and wedding venue on Bayfield\u2019s west end. Consideration of annexing McCoy Ranch was tabled until the March 10 Planning Commission meeting. Both properties are in unincorporated La Plata County.<\/p>\n

Town planner Derrick Slocum said the ranches are the first of their kind to seek annexation into Bayfield under the new Agriculture Zone District, which was established in late 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way the agriculture zone was designed, property within that district can maintain, protect and encourage farmland and farming activities,\u201d Slocum said in an email to The Durango Herald<\/em>.<\/p>\n

L-J\u2019s owners still have some hurdles to clear before the annexation is finalized \u2013 they must obtain approval for an annexation ordinance, agreement and map, Slocum said. Once the necessary signatures are obtained, three copies of each document must be recorded with the La Plata County Recorder. Under C.R.S. 31-12-113(2)(b), completion of those steps makes the annexation effective.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn general, whenever any property is annexed into a town or city, it subjects the property to that municipality\u2019s taxes, zoning and building codes and regulations,\u201d Slocum said. \u201c(Annexation) extends the municipality\u2019s boundaries and the ability to access the municipality\u2019s services.\u201d<\/p>\n

That includes any new construction or modification to existing structures on the land, Slocum said.<\/p>\n

Slocum said that because L-J is zoned for agriculture, its owners can maintain the property\u2019s existing water rights. Once annexed, L-J would be able to access Bayfield\u2019s public services, though it would not be immediately required to connect to utilities such as water and sewer.<\/p>\n

Slocum said that section 6-5 in the Bayfield Land Use Code<\/a> says that \u201cproperties annexed and zoned as agriculture \u2018A\u2019 are not required to dedicate water rights to the town until such time that the property wants to rezone to a use other than agriculture for development purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The property would, however, be required to contribute to other town services like road maintenance, taxation, public improvements and policing.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, once there is a failure or capacity issue with those existing on-site services, then they would be required to connect to the town\u2019s service,\u201d Slocum said.<\/p>\n

Slocum said annexation is a lengthy process with many required steps. La Plata County has limited involvement when a property is annexed into a municipality.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe county is sent a copy of the Notice, Resolution of Intent, Petition and required reports,\u201d Slocum said. \u201cThis information was sent to the Board of County Commissioners by registered mail. If needed, the county can comment on the annexation, but they are not required to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, once the ranch is annexed into Bayfield, Slocum said, the property owners must comply with all town codes, regulations, laws and other requirements.<\/p>\n

sedmondson@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Annexations are first of their kind to utilize 2024 zoning to maintain and encourage farming within town limits<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[731,28,1231,994],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bayfield","tag-headlines","tag-pine-river-times","tag-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13406"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18960,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13406\/revisions\/18960"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13406"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}