{"id":69033,"date":"2017-08-04T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-08-04T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-planning-board-shifts-its-focus-to-carports\/"},"modified":"2017-08-04T15:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-08-04T15:00:00","slug":"cortez-planning-board-shifts-its-focus-to-carports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-planning-board-shifts-its-focus-to-carports\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez planning board shifts its focus to carports"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A metal carport in Cortez.<\/span>City of Cortez\/Courtesy photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Cortez Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday discussed adding regulations for metal residential carports.<\/p>\n

According to City Planner Tracie Hughes, property owners in Cortez often install prebuilt carports without permits, and they are not currently subject to specific design guidelines. The draft land use code the city has been working on for several months includes design criteria for carports, but the many metal ones that exist throughout the town wouldn\u2019t meet those criteria. Most Planning and Zoning board members agreed the new code shouldn\u2019t prohibit metal carports entirely, but it should include more regulations for installing new ones.<\/p>\n

Hughes said metal carports pose problems for code enforcement because they usually don\u2019t match the construction of the house to which they\u2019re attached, and if they have two enclosed sides, they can create a visual barrier for cars on the street. Despite these potential problems, their owners often don\u2019t realize they need a building permit to install them. Board Chairman Danny Giannone said they\u2019re also unpleasant to look at.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at it, and you know exactly why it\u2019s there,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s there because it\u2019s cheap.\u201d<\/p>\n

Board Member Tom Butler agreed, but Ken Brengle and Rebecca Levy pointed out that many people can\u2019t afford more expensive, better-looking carports, and those who can usually live in neighborhoods with homeowners associations that don\u2019t allow cheap-looking ones anyway.<\/p>\n

Planning and Building director Sam Proffer weighed in on the issue, saying the city needs a consistent standard for regulating carports.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re just all over town,\u201d he said. \u201cTrying to regulate them has just been a nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that on the rare occasions when residents apply for a permit to install a carport, he often has to turn them down because they don\u2019t meet zoning regulations, but there are no penalties in place for people who buy the structures without permission.<\/p>\n

Hughes said Cortez has the option of prohibiting metal carports altogether, as other cities have done, but Brengle said he didn\u2019t believe that was the answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this was Telluride, and everyone had the money, this would be a totally different discussion,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when you\u2019re talking about people in a financially distressed area \u2026 I would like to see these things regulated and installed correctly rather than banned altogether.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several members of the board recommended allowing metal carports as long as they meet the same building requirements as other \u201caccessory buildings,\u201d including the right amount of setback from the street. They also discussed the importance of giving residents an incentive to apply for a permit before installing a carport.<\/p>\n

Proffer said he and Hughes would take the board\u2019s comments into account as they continue to work on the land use code, as well as the new building code Proffer plans to implement in September.<\/p>\n

Other action<\/div>\n

During the meeting, the Planning and Zoning Commission also:<\/p>\n

Approved a change of use from residential to commercial for the building on 1823 E. Main St. The owners, Peter Singleton and Kerri White, hope to start a spa there.<\/em>Approved a modified exception to fence height requirements in the 800 block of Austin Street for Ned Harper and Janis Nowlin in a 3-1 vote, with Brengle voting \u201cno.\u201d <\/em>Announced the board\u2019s intention to present a commemorative plaque to former member Tim Kline, who was not present at the meeting. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

to add regulations to new land use code<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":69034,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,318,13,28,193,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-69033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-cortez-municipal-government","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-land-use","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69033","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=69033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69033"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=69033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}