{"id":88945,"date":"2020-04-28T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/la-plata-county-considers-six-month-moratorium-on-development-applications\/"},"modified":"2020-04-28T02:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-28T08:00:00","slug":"la-plata-county-considers-six-month-moratorium-on-development-applications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/la-plata-county-considers-six-month-moratorium-on-development-applications\/","title":{"rendered":"La Plata County considers six-month moratorium on development applications"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"La
La Plata County is expected to implement a six-month moratorium on all new development applications to prepare for adopting a new land-use code this fall.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

La Plata County is expected to implement a six-month moratorium on all new development applications to prepare for adopting a new land-use code this fall.<\/p>\n

Megan Graham, spokeswoman for the county, said moratoriums are standard practice for counties set to adopt new codes, so planning staff don\u2019t have to process new developments under two different standards.<\/p>\n

La Plata County commissioners are expected to vote on the moratorium May 5, which would be effective immediately if approved. It would last until Nov. 5, according to county records.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to transition from one code to another, we have to have a period where we can\u2019t accept new applications because we\u2019re changing from one set of rules to another,\u201d said Commissioner Julie Westendorff. \u201cI\u2019d like that to be as short as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

But some say a moratorium sends the wrong message to businesses and developers who may be looking to locate to La Plata County, especially during a time when the economy is suffering as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt almost gives the sense of not working with businesses, even if that\u2019s not their intent,\u201d said Laura Marchino, executive director of Region 9 Economic Development District of Southwest Colorado. \u201cThis just adds to those barriers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The moratorium would apply only to development applications, not building permits, Graham said. So construction of a single-family home or accessory dwellings, for example, would still be allowed.<\/p>\n

Development applications are typically associated with larger-scale projects, usually under a Class 1 or Class 2 permit. But if a project was previously approved, it can go onto construction.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have your land-use permit, you can still get your building permit,\u201d Graham said.<\/p>\n

La Plata County is also proposing 16 exemptions to the moratorium for reasons such as a project currently in process, oil and gas activities or utility work, among others.<\/p>\n

Applicants also have the opportunity to petition La Plata County commissioners should their project not fall within the allowed exemptions.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoratorium is an ominous word, \u201c Westendorff said. \u201cBut this is not as ominous as people are thinking it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Westendorff added that with the coronavirus outbreak, it\u2019s likely there would be fewer development applications during this time.<\/p>\n

\u201cRealistically, we\u2019re going to see fewer projects anyway because of the instability in the world in general, specifically in business,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

La Plata County has been attempting to update its land-use code, which hasn\u2019t had a serious overhaul since the 1980s, since fall 2016. Graham said county officials expect to release a draft of the new codes in May.<\/p>\n

Then, the county will host a series of public meetings to get residents\u2019 feedback, Graham said.<\/p>\n

County officials contacted more than 20 developers whose projects could be affected by the moratorium, Graham said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have an application in before May 5, it will still be processed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Marchino said the moratorium will make it harder to entice businesses to be located in La Plata County, an ongoing problem for those in the business community.<\/p>\n

Many times, businesses choose to locate in adjacent Montezuma County or northern New Mexico where it\u2019s easier to start a business, Marchino said. A moratorium would exacerbate those issues.<\/p>\n

Marchino said given the coronavirus outbreak, the county should be making it easier to attract new businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy have any kind of moratorium at this point?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Elyse Ackerman Casselberry, the community development director for Delta County, which is also rewriting its land-use code, agreed it is standard practice to place a moratorium on development applications during a code revision.<\/p>\n

But, she said Delta County commissioners chose not to implement a moratorium because they didn\u2019t want to send a message to the business community that the county wasn\u2019t open for business.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur county commissioners felt a moratorium was the opposite of being business friendly,\u201d she said. \u201cThat was really why we did not put one in place. But it does pose some challenges, especially at the tail end of adopting new regs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jon Roorda, the planning manager for Chaffee County, said planners used the old code until the new code was finalized and adopted in 2014 during a land-use regulation rewrite. That way, a moratorium wasn\u2019t necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur pre-2014 code was in place until the new one was approved,\u201d he said. \u201cSo you\u2019re not working from two codes at once.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a letter to La Plata County, Jack Turner, who is running for county commissioner in fall 2020, said the moratorium \u201ccould not be made at a worse time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there is a surge of land use permit applications, it would be a blessing considering the national and local state of the economy,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

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

allow smoother transition to a new land-use code<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":88948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,4880,1680,1512,193,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-88945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-julie-westendorff","tag-la-plata-county-commissioners","tag-la-plata-county-government","tag-land-use","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88945","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=88945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88945"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=88945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}