{"id":16291,"date":"2025-10-02T23:00:58","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T05:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/code-rights-project-went-searching-for-answers-comes-up-with-more-questions\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:56:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:56:18","slug":"code-rights-project-went-searching-for-answers-comes-up-with-more-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/code-rights-project-went-searching-for-answers-comes-up-with-more-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Code Rights Project went searching for answers. Comes up with more questions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Codes Right Project, a citizen-led effort to investigate La Plata County\u2019s planning, building and code enforcement processes, was launched in July. Now, several months later, the work has mostly dredged up even more questions \u2013 demonstrating any solution to the delays and high costs of county planning approvals won\u2019t come fast or easy. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Dunning-Kruger effect \u2013 a framework for explaining cognitive bias \u2013 captures the paradoxical nature of learning: the more you know, the more you realize how much you actually don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

That has been the experience of The Code Rights Project, a citizen-led effort launched in July to examine La Plata County\u2019s planning, building and code enforcement processes.<\/p>\n

The group, backed by anonymous residents and developers, argue that the system has stifled business and restricted economic development in the region. They point to a planning and building process they see as overly complex, and time-consuming \u2013 driving up costs.<\/p>\n

Now, several months and more than $6,000 later \u2013 hundreds of county records combed through \u2013 the group has yet to pinpoint any answers or solutions to the aforementioned problems.<\/p>\n

What the research has provided, however, is sharper questions.<\/p>\n

Namely questions about the role of the county\u2019s legal department in the planning process.<\/p>\n

Jack Turner, project director hired by the group, said the scope of attorney involvement raises concerns about efficiency and accountability.<\/p>\n

According to Community Development Director Lynn Hyde, the complicated mix of overlapping codes, regulations and policies often requires legal guidance to ensure consistency and fairness.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we have questions, we do use the county attorney for support,\u201d she said. And attorney review is not required for every project, she added.<\/p>\n

The county was unable to immediately provide data on what percentage of projects require attorney input.<\/p>\n

Another question the Code Rights Project work has raised: Why is the per-resident cost of the planning and attorney department so high in La Plata County? And do the high staff numbers in the legal and planning department indicate a waste of resources and added inefficiencies?<\/p>\n

As part of its first phase, the project commissioned a seven-page fiscal review of county spending. The report calculated that the cost per resident for the planning department, with 14 employees, was $48.28, while the legal department, with nine employees, cost $33.28. Those numbers were compared to nine other \u201csimilar\u201d counties.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think it\u2019s pretty easy to conclude that we\u2019re spending more on government here per person than, you know, a lot of places,\u201d Turner said.<\/p>\n

Turner shared the report with county officials to verify its accuracy. While officials did not flag factual errors, County Commissioner Elizabeth Philbrick said the analysis lacked the depth needed to support conclusions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went back and forth with Jack asking, first and foremost, I was like, Jack, I need to see your methodology, and I need to see your references. Where are your resources? Where are you getting these numbers, right?\u201d Philbrick said. \u201cIf you\u2019re doing analysis, it is exceptionally important that your methodology is understood.\u201d<\/p>\n

She noted that the data simply calculated cost per full-time employee per taxpayer but did not account for the scope of services delivered.<\/p>\n

Philbrick also pointed out that La Plata County\u2019s legal department is larger than those in other counties because of the presence of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. As a sovereign government, the tribe requires extensive intergovernmental agreements with the county \u2013 agreements that demand specialized legal expertise.<\/p>\n

As for planning staff, Philbrick said higher numbers reflect the workload, not waste. Hyde agreed, noting that fewer than 10 planners handle all current applications, and while she praised her team, she acknowledged they are stretched thin.<\/p>\n

At present, about 160 projects are in the queue, Hyde said, not including long-range code amendments, statutory requirements, building permit reviews and code enforcement.<\/p>\n

But the county does recognize the cost and complexity of the land-use code and building regulations as a problem that requires massive overhaul, officials say.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not a person who is going to ever make the case that government does everything super-well, super-efficiently in the most affordable way, right? I think there is incredible room for improvement,\u201d Philbrick said.<\/p>\n

In the past few weeks she said the county has put together a task force to actively work on code amendments to make development easier and more efficient.<\/p>\n

One example: Revisiting the \u201c10% rule.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the county, if someone changes 10% of anything on their project, the rule is that it immediately triggers a whole new reassessment of the project. It\u2019s costly and time-wasting Philbrick said, and may soon be on the chopping block.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf what you are asking for is change, change is already happening,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But for Turner and supporters of the Code Rights Project, the bottom line remains the same: Residents feel the county\u2019s system for planning, building and development is slow, costly and unpredictable.<\/p>\n

The group has spent $5,231 on public records requests, receiving 227 documents related to easements and rights-of-way as conditions of permit approvals. They have also received 195 records detailing planning applicants who were forced to update parts of their property retroactively to align with new land-use code standards before their applications could even be considered.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real question is, is the system we have actually fixable?\u201d Turner said. \u201cBecause it\u2019s not working. I just don\u2019t see how anybody can say our system is working down here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turner\u2019s work will continue, likely for many more months, he said. Soon, he hopes to hire an analyst to sift through the detailed documents.<\/p>\n

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

Citizen-led group searched for bottlenecks in La Plata County planning department<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,453,475],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-housing-and-urban-planning","tag-la-plata-county-colorado"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16291","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=16291"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20120,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16291\/revisions\/20120"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16291"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}