| 4/30/2007 8:55:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Land use roundtable initiates Smart Code investigation as alternative
by Jason Starr
Mail Staff Writer
Flagging momentum of the Chaffee County land use roundtable was addressed Thursday by initiating investigation of the Smart Code as an alternative to existing land use regulations.
Citizen group members recommended continuing regulation improvements with the idea the new urbanist Smart Code and existing regulations can exist side by side, giving land developers the option of which code to use.
A cross section of citizen representatives, including ranchers, commercial and residential land developers and sustainable growth advocates, agreed to pitch the idea of conducting a charrette to Chaffee County Commissioners.
Charrette, a French word, describes an intensive design workshop involving citizens and professional planners.
It would be an initial step toward applying the Smart Code to Chaffee County. Charrettes have become popular with the new urbanist planning movement in America.
The roundtable group has struggled for several months to come up with ways to prevent sprawling development - which existing regulations allow through the ability to subdivide at one lot for every two acres - while retaining the land values inherent in the current regulations, or compensating landowners for that value.
At the same time, the group is considering ways to help ranchers stay in business so water rights continue to be used in the county - irrigating fields and recharging the aquifer - as opposed to being sold to developers in other parts of the state.
The roundtable process resulted from citizen uproar in February 2006 about a perceived taking of property rights when county officials presented one zoning alternative.
Residents have been volunteering their time in focus groups and with the roundtable since then and have become frustrated at recent meetings by lack of progress.
Roundtable members aired that sentiment during the session Thursday.
"People are running out of energy in this process," Paul Crabtree said.
Bruce Cogan added, "I'm kind of in a state of confusion as to what's going on."
"I think we are floundering," Frank McMurry said.
"We need to scrap where we're at and start the process over as a charrette," Rick Shovald suggested.
A subcommittee was formed to study costs, goals and process of a charrette. It includes McMurry, Shovald, Crabtree, Katie Selby, Karin Adams, Frank Holman and Dave Williams.
They plan to pitch the idea to county commissioners at an upcoming meeting. Commissioners will decide whether to proceed with the charrette.
"I feel we're on the right track," Shovald said. "We're proposing a new idea and it's going to involve a charrette and involve smart growth."
A minority of citizens and planning commission members were opposed to the charrette idea Thursday. They are skeptical about how the Smart Code can apply to a rural area such as Chaffee County and how it would address the question of property right infringement.
"Having a dual code is a way to retain private property rights," Holman, a representative of local ranchers, said. "And as the Smart Code evolves it will eventually address everyone's needs."
"Adopt the Smart Code as an alternative," Crabtree added. "Then people know they are not losing their property rights."
County planners asked Smart Code proponents why a developer would agree to use the Smart Code - which restricts development in rural areas - when he or she could continue with the existing codes allowing two-acre development.
The question of whether to restrict development in rural areas in the existing codes remained unaddressed.
Meanwhile, county planning consultant Barb Cole seemed disillusioned with the direction the group took. She has been preparing an update of planned unit development regulations and an overlay zone for working agricultural operations.
"I find where we are in some ways unfortunate," she said. "I feel all the work that's been done the last two years somehow has not been attached to where we are today."
Roundtable members voted for Cole to continue working on the planned unit development regulations, appointing a subcommittee to work closely with her on details.
Cole said the principles of smart growth and new urbanism can be addressed through planned unit development regulations.
"I believe a rewrite of the PUD provides the mechanism of getting to a dual code," she said. "The easiest and simplest ways to have a Smart Code is through the PUD process."
The roundtable will meet again in May to discuss progress on the planned unit development rewrite and the charrette idea.
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