2020-07-13 Grand County Planning Commission Report

Vacant Planning Comm’n Seat interviews: The Commission interviewed four applicants: Makeda Barkley, Steve Evers, Josie Kovash, and Will Hansen. Commission voted to recommend Josie Kovash for the PC vacancy. The Commission members thanked each of the applicants and encouraged them to re-apply for future vacancies, with Kevin and Emily noting that each of them applied more than once to finally get appointed to the PC. Grand County Council will appoint new member at (presumably) the next Council meeting on July 21.

Public Hearing Desert Mesa HDHO Subdivision Lot 2 Amended – Glen Lent (prospective buyer/developer).  Requesting a 3-lot High Density Housing Overlay (HDHO-5) on a 0.6 ac. parcel located at Mesa Rd and Desert Rd.

• The owners and prospective buyer/developer are requesting the County attach the HDHO-5 District to the parcel located at the corner of Desert Road and Mesa Road. The lot’s total project size is 0.6 acres. The HDHO-5 designation allows for 5 units / acre, or 1 unit / 0.2 acres, which is the proposed density of this project. All three (3) of the lots proposed would be deed restricted in accordance Grand County Land use Code Section 4.7. Current zoning of the property is Large Lot Residential (LLR), which has a base zoning density of two (2) units per acre, or 1 unit/0.5 ac. Each lot would be eligible for a primary dwelling unit and an accessory dwelling unit (ADU), totaling 6 dwelling units on 0.6 acres. Developer’s intent is to sell undeveloped lots (deed restricted), rather than developed properties. The change would nearly triple the density.
• Several property owners in the neighborhood submitted comments requesting the application be denied. Reasons included: significant change in character to the neighborhood; folks bought in the area to avoid high density; impacts to property values; traffic volume/safety; developer knew the current zoning when purchased/contracted to purchase the property.
• PC members noted that this HDHO is different than previous applications as the developer intends to sell deed-restricted lots rather than develop the lots and then sell; boundary/fenceline issue with neighboring property owner will slightly decrease size of each lot and technically not meet the minimum lot size requirement; we’ve been approving HDHO’s at a very fast pace and we’re almost to the 300-unit cap and would prefer to use remaining HDHO slots for areas closer to town where higher density is more reasonable; in hind-sight would’ve preferred to not approve so many HDHO applications so far south in the County; there’s no emergency reason to approve this application and can wait and see how HDHO buildout works and approve HDHO’s closer to town; cognizant of neighborhood’s concerns.
• VOTE: Motion to send a favorable recommendation to the County Council for applying the High Density Housing Overlay District 5 (HDHO-5) to Lot 2 of Desert Mesa Subdivision, parcel number 02-0DSM-0002. Motion failed 1-5 (Bob O’Brien voted in favor).

Public Hearing Namaste Rock Rezone RG (Range and Grazing) to SLR (Small Lot Residential) – Machael Skarda, developer, requesting rezone of 24.03 acres located at Hwy 191/313 from R&G to SLR .

• Staff recommendation – deny rezone. There are no other comparably zoned (residential) parcels anywhere in the vicinity of this one, and Small Lot Residential is currently in neighborhoods near to the City. Recall, Planning Commission reviewed a request to rezone this parcel to Resort Commercial recently, which was denied at both PC and County Council, due to lack of a Small Area Plan and concerns regarding fast food establishments. Small Lot Residential may eventually be in the future Small Area Plan; however, in the absence of such, the proposed rezone would constitute a large departure from current zoning and may be considered spot zoning. Also noted that a rezone would allow development of any of the uses allowed under the SLR, and the conceptual plans proposed with this rezone application are irrelevant.
• PC members noted that the Small Area Plan would be drafted by end of the year and that they want community input on this area before making recommendations for such a large rezone. The argument that there’s already highway commercial zoning in this area doesn’t tip the scales in favor of the current proposal; the highway commercial zoning is also out of character for the area and shouldn’t let it be the impetus for additional bad zoning changes in this area.
• Motion to send unfavorable recommendation to County Council passed 6-0.

Discussion Small Area Plan for Hwy 191/313

• Mila reported that the community survey is on Survey Monkey and can make it live Tuesday, July 14, if PC members give it final review and thumbs up.
• Workshop with Grand County Council scheduled for Tuesday, July 21 at 1 p.m. Hopefully there will be some survey results by then.
• Staff is reaching out to interested parties in that area (property owners, NPS), community members, MAWP, business, etc., to encourage a broad spectrum of input.