On Thursday, April 24, the Archuleta County Planning Commission unanimously recommended approving changes to the county’s Land Use Regulations relating to public notice requirements.
Those changes include adding language to specify that posted signs on properties with public hearings be no less than 12 square feet in size and changes to mailed notice requirements.
In relation to mailed notice requirements, the planning commission proposed adding language stating that a minimum of 15 neighbors must be notified, beginning with a reach of 500 feet from the properties boundary.
If the minimum number of neighbors is not reached initially, the distance will increase by 500 feet until the minimum number of neighbors are notified, planning manager Owen O’Dell explained.
O’Dell also noted that applicants may be required to notify more than the minimum number of 15 if there are more properties within the 500-foot range.
Included in the proposed changes is also the addition of language outlining that the county shall provide additional courtesy notices of land use hearings on social media platforms the county is engaged in.
Development Director Pamela Flowers explained that these changes will be presented to the Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) for final approval, noting that anyone currently in the process of land use hearing will not be subject to the new notice requirements.
Prior to the planning commission voting on the matter, O’Dell explained that the changes were being presented at the request of the planning commission following concerns about the number of neighbors notified for two recent rezone request hearings.
Planning commissioner Peter Vecvangs expressed support for identifying a minimum number of neighbors required to be notified compared to the current requirement of just whoever is within 500 feet of the property.
O’Dell commented that large properties surrounded by other larger properties may need to go significantly further than 500 feet from its boundary to meet the minimum requirement of 15 neighbors.
Planning commissioner Mont McAllister initially suggested a minimum 20 to 30 neighbors be required to be notified.
Planning commissioner Matt Nobles commented, “To me, the minimum needs to be pretty low then,” when taking into consideration projects located closer to high-density areas.
O’Dell indicated that, according to his research in other regulations across the state, “more often than not it was just adjacent property owners” that are required to be notified.
Vecvangs commented that projects in denser areas need to have more people be notified.
Planning commissioner Andre Redstone mentioned the commission was initially only considering one element of a “three-prong notification system” and that the other two ways of publishing notices could also be reviewed and modified, such as increasing the size of posted signs and using social media outlets to inform the public of these hearings.
“There’s nothing wrong with over-notifying, but clearly we’ve experienced ... under-notifying,” Redstone said.
He explained that the current signs are only about 2 feet by 3 feet, suggesting that increasing the sign size is “a simple fix without a big cost,” noting a larger sign might be considered “invasive,” though it would only be temporary.
Flowers indicated the current code does not specify a required size for posted signs.
Redstone also explained that the hope is that a larger sign will make it more noticeable for neighbors and passersby that “something” is happening at that property.
The planning commission ultimately agreed on a minimum sign size of 12 square feet and a minimum number of 15 neighbors required to be notified.
McAllister added that the minimum number of neighbors required to be notified can always be changed at a later date.
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