The Montezuma County commissioners are rescinding the fire ban.
At their regular meeting Tuesday, Chair Jim Candelaria said he had had numerous phone calls from people requesting it be lifted.
Commissioner Gerald Koppenhafer said the entire county has received a great deal of moisture and the landscape isn’t going to dry out now as it does in the heat of summer.
The board voted unanimously to authorize Candelaria to sign a resolution lifting the ban effective at 6 a.m. Wednesday.
In other news, Montezuma County officials continue to work on revisions to the land use code. One of the key changes proposed is to eliminate the term “use by right” because it may be misleading.
At the commissioners’ Monday workshop, county attorney Stephen Tarnowski noted that in a ruling over a proposed Dollar General store, District Judge Todd Plewe was critical of some of the language in the code even though he upheld the county’s decision to deny the proposal. That ruling is being appealed by the developer, Leaf Properties, in the Colorado Court of Appeals.
Tarnowski said the new language would make it clear that people are allowed to do certain things in different zoning designations provided they don’t exceed threshold standards, in which case they need to apply for a high-impact permit.
“Use by right isn’t defined anywhere in Colorado,” Tarnowski said. “You would be forgiven for thinking ‘use by right’ means you can do this sort of unfettered and that’s not how the staff understand the Montezuma County land use code to work. A use by right for commercial use doesn’t mean you can build a rocket launch operation on your land.”
He said he and the staff want to add language to the effect that “a use that is an authorized use in a zoning designation requires a high-impact permit to exceed any threshold standard.”
“We’re trying to make it more edited, make it more clear,” Tarnowski said.
Other possible changes he discussed involved regulations governing solar energy.
After receiving feedback from the commissioners, Tarnowski said he would continue working on the draft revisions. Those will eventually be set for a public hearing.
