During a regular meeting held by the Archuleta County Planning Commission on Thursday, May 28, Director of Development Eva Kruse spoke about an “administrative rezone” that the county may consider in the near future for an area along U.S. 160 in Aspen Springs where multiple commercial businesses are currently located within an agricultural zone based on the county’s current zoning map.
The Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) initially adopted its zoning map back in 2006, with the last major update approved in 2016.
During the planning commission meeting, Kruse also explained that a Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) project is being planned in the same area which will close down an existing illegal access and construct a new legal, permitted access.
Kruse indicated that she did not want to go into detail about which exact properties would be involved in the administrative rezone or CDOT project, as all of the property owners would need to be notified.
“Most of the properties are in code violations because they are agriculturally zoned, being used for either commercial or industrial purposes,” Kruse said, explaining there is a “series” of these properties along U.S. 160 “where this new road access would be going.”
Kruse also explained that if the property owners were to submit rezoning applications on their own, they would be subject to the county’s land use regulations and potentially have to pay fees for things like a drainage study.
Doing an administrative rezone would eliminate the property owners’ need to submit individual rezoning applications, Kruse mentioned.
“This is something the county has the ability to do under current land use regulations,” Kruse said in regard to administrative rezones.
She went on to explain that “strip commercial” areas are not typically done in land-use projects.
“It’s just not good planning practice,” she said, noting this area in Aspen Springs along U.S. 160 has had multiple commercial businesses for many years now.
“These land uses that are being used as commercial, industrial, have been this way for a really long time,” she said, mentioning that existing land use conditions “really didn’t seem to matter” at the time.
“An administrative rezoning is not something I take lightly,” Kruse said, indicating that it is something the county is considering doing.
County Attorney Cathleen Giovannini asked if the area that Kruse had been referring to included the Aspen Springs Bar and Grill, and the Turkey Springs Trading Post, with Kruse indicating she did not want to provide any more detail until all property owners have been contacted and have the matter posted on the planning commission’s next meeting agenda.
Planning commission member Matt Nobles asked if property owners are aware that they may have to meet certain county codes (such as having a drainage study done) with rezoning properties from agricultural to commercial.
Kruse explained that those are elements of the site-planning process, indicating that if the properties were to individually submit a rezone request they would have to submit those site planning applications.
Kruse then clarified that, “If we do an administrative rezoning that would not apply,” and could save the property owners money.
Nobles added that some of the businesses in the Aspen Springs area have been operating there for many years, warning that it might not look good if the county were to come in and shut down a business until certain applications, studies and fees were submitted.
Kruse acknowledged Nobles’ comments, reiterating that extra applications and potential fees would not apply to those property owners if the county does an administrative rezone
In a later message to The SUN, Kruse spoke more about the CDOT project, stating “the illegal access is what would be closed.”
She adds, “We’ll be actually fixing the access to the highway.”
clayton@pagosasun.com
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