{"id":23171,"date":"2025-03-13T00:18:32","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T06:18:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-adopts-new-land-use-code\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:28:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:28:39","slug":"cortez-adopts-new-land-use-code","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-adopts-new-land-use-code\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez adopts new land use code"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The new Cortez City Hall is at 123 Roger Smith Ave.<\/span>Sam Green\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

As of March 11, development within the city of Cortez answers to a new land use code.<\/p>\n

Tuesday evening, Cortez City Council unanimously agreed to repeal its 30-year-old code and adopt the revised one that consultants, city officials and residents worked on for nearly two years.<\/p>\n

It was the second reading of the new code before council, the first being Feb. 25. Before that, on Feb. 18, the city\u2019s Planning and Zoning Commission reviewed and ultimately recommended it for adoption.<\/p>\n

Jennifer Gardner, a senior associate planner at Logan Simpson who helped craft the code, gave a presentation before council voted to highlight some changes and to address a few specific concerns the public had during the 30-day review period.<\/p>\n

Gardner highlighted major changes by chapter, and started by mentioning that the revised code has eight chapters instead of seven to give historic preservation its own section. Previously, it was \u201cburied\u201d in applications and procedures.<\/p>\n

By and large, the chapters and their intentions remained the same.<\/p>\n

Chapters were, however, \u201creformatted for consistency,\u201d and a table of contents was added to each, as were tables and graphics throughout.<\/p>\n

Plus, \u201csome standards were pulled back, and others were pushed forward,\u201d Gardner said. \u201cIt\u2019s always kind of a push and pull with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
A general overview of the new land use code in the city of Cortez. This is a screenshot from a presentation that a Logan Simpson consultant gave to city council on March 11.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Changes by chapter<\/div>\n

In Chapter 1, a major focus was in updating nonconforming provisions, and making those provisions structure- and use-specific.<\/p>\n

The definition of \u201cabandoned\u201d also changed from six to 12 months vacant, and the definition of destruction changed from natural causes to any cause, since it\u2019s \u201chard to determine cause sometimes,\u201d said Gardner.<\/p>\n

Chapter 2 is still definitions, though some are now paired with tables to ease understanding.<\/p>\n

Gardner said they \u201cspent a lot of time\u201d tailoring Chapter 3, Zone District and Regulations, to Cortez.<\/p>\n

To be sure, the zone districts remain the same.<\/p>\n

Some zone names were changed to \u201calign with their intent.\u201d For example, \u201cManufactured Home District\u201d on the south side of Cortez was changed to \u201cMixed Residential.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are manufactured homes, but there\u2019s also many single family homes, duplexes, large lot, small lot,\u201d Gardner said. \u201cIt\u2019s a real mix of housing types, and \u2026 calling it mixed residential captures that mix of uses.\u201d<\/p>\n

A lot of changes in this chapter are intended to make housing more flexible in the city, a goal now consistent in both the land use code and the city\u2019s housing action plan.<\/p>\n

Subdivision standards in Chapter 4 largely stayed the same, though they updated street standards, median standards and added optional bike lane standards, too.<\/p>\n

Gardner called Chapter 5, which hones Site Development Standards, \u201ca very meaty chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Off-street parking requirements were reduced, and alternative, shared parking standards were added. There\u2019s also now lighting standards, a new addition to the code.<\/p>\n

Gardner said the lighting standards are \u201ca foundation to build from.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took a middle-of-the-road approach between a full dark sky and nothing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

City lights must be fully downward directed and shielded; existing lights comply with this new standard.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a new natural resource standard, too, which essentially adds buffer standards to protect waterways. There\u2019s also an added provision to prohibit new billboards.<\/p>\n

Next comes Chapter 6, administration and procedures.<\/p>\n

That chapter was all reorganized, said Gardner.<\/p>\n

It still lays out application types processes, though there\u2019s now a chart to make such processes more digestible.<\/p>\n

Also, minor site plans can be now approved by administration; only major ones need to be approved by City Council.<\/p>\n

The new chapter on historic preservation is Chapter 7. Chapter 8 \u2013 flood plain regulations \u2013 largely stayed the same.<\/p>\n

Public input<\/div>\n

Gardner then highlighted questions and concerns that arose during the public\u2019s window to review the drafted code.<\/p>\n

Many comments were \u201cpositive,\u201d praising the \u201clayman\u2019s terms\u201d and \u201cgraphics making it easier to navigate\u201d the code, she said.<\/p>\n

There was one concern about a lack of a noise ordinance, but they added a section for that in Chapter 5, drawing from state requirements for it.<\/p>\n

Someone asked about fertilizer regulations, and Gardner said the \u201cland use code doesn\u2019t have jurisdiction over that.\u201d<\/p>\n

City Attorney Patrick Coleman made eight amendment recommendations, and other city staff made six others. The code was adopted with those amendments.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake no mistake. This is a plan for the city of Cortez,\u201d Council member Dennis Spruell said. \u201cThe very first meeting we had, we wanted it for the city of Cortez. \u2026 I expect other cities will use ours as one (land use code) to follow, so thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Make no mistake. This is a plan for the city of Cortez,\u2019 council member says<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23171","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=23171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78005,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23171\/revisions\/78005"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23171"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}