The Cortez Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday gave a unanimous thumbs-up to a proposal for a log-home-manufacturing operation near the west entrance to the Carpenter Natural Area off Lebanon Road.
The business will include equipment storage, log-home construction, and firewood processing.
At the end of a nearly 3½-hour meeting, the commission recommended approval of a conditional-use permit and site plan for the Independent Log Company. The company last year sought a controversial rezoning of the 10-acre parcel from commercial to industrial, but was turned down by the city council.
On Tuesday, P&Z rejected staff recommendations that the site have trees for screening and a paved access road. The applicants, Anthony Moore and Mary Lancaster, said there isn’t water available to keep trees alive, and that gravel would be better for the access road because it would hold up better under the weight of the 85,000-pound loaded logging trucks. Moore said he would use a water truck to keep dust down.
Also during Tuesday’s hearing, the applicants said that a 30-foot buffer zone along the eastern edge of their property between it and the natural area should be eliminated.
City planner Nancy Dosdall pointed out that the buffer zone – where no equipment storage would be allowed and no proposed uses were shown – was depicted on the site plan that had been submitted.
Attorney Patrick Coleman said the plan containing the buffer zone could be recommended for approval and sent on to city council even if the plan needed to be modified after P&Z had okayed it.
However, Lancaster then said the applicants wanted to amend the site plan to eliminate the 30-foot buffer on the east side, as well as a reference to a 75-foot buffer on the south.
A 30-foot buffer was still planned for the north side.
The planning group allowed them to make the change, so the plan that P&Z voted on was a verbally amended version. Coleman said it is common for applicants to make “changes on the fly.”
A dozen people commented during the public hearing.
Five spoke in favor of the proposal, citing the economic benefits and jobs it could provide and the fact that the owners are wildland firefighters. Moore himself said he is an asset to the community and is “No. 1 on the list” for Durango dispatch when firefighters are called out.
He said the business will utilize logs 40 or 50 feet in length that have been thinned from overcrowded regional forests that already being decimated by bark beetles. As the logs are trimmed to make homes, the remaining wood will be saved and sold as firewood.
Sawdust is to be put into a trailer and hauled away for use in items such as pet bedding.
Moore said the location is excellent for his purposes and that he will never sell the property. “I’m going to put it into a trust and give it to my grandkids,” he said.
But seven people gave public comments against having a small sawmill and “industrial-type activities” operating in that location, which adjoins a residential neighborhood on the south.
“This is a great company, but they’re in the wrong place,” said David Faulkner, a resident of the nearby neighborhood.
Jim Skvorc, who lives in the county, echoed that belief.
“This property is not the right place for this business, no matter how good the people are who are doing it,” Skvorc said. He spoke about the noise that will be created by the saws, commenting that the site is “bounded on 1½ sides by residential properties and on one side by a quiet open-space area.”
The planning commissioners did not speak much to the concerns about noise, traffic, and other impacts, but wrestled with the issue of whether the proposal violates a part of the land-use code that says “no open storage of materials or commodities” is permitted on property zoned commercial.
The staff had recommended the firewood at least be fenced, but the applicants said that would make it difficult to be loaded using a front-end loader. Moore also said it would hamper deer from moving through the area.
Commissioner Emily Waldron said the firewood, which will be sold, would indeed be a commodity under the current code.
But Commissioner Katrina Weiss said firewood is a “byproduct.”
“I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a commodity,” she said.
“The applicants are definitely asking for long-term storage,” applicant Moore said at one point, but added that the wood would be moved in and out regularly.
“What about the log home in the yard?” Moore asked “What if it sits there longer than six months? Why isn’t that open storage?”
The commissioners eventually decided the prohibition against open storage did not apply to this proposal because “storage” is not defined in the code, and the logs and firewood will be removed every three to six months, according to the applicants.
“Storage to me. . . is stuff you set aside that you’re not going to use,” Weiss said.
The proposal now goes to the city council for final approval.
