Grand County Planning Commission Meeting Report 2021-03-22

The agenda and packet can be viewed here. You can view the YouTube of the meeting here.

Spanish Valley Survey. The PC discussed the draft survey that is still a work in progress. The survey will eventually be sent to residents to get input on future development in Spanish Valley including: commercial (including nightly rentals), residential, transportation and non-motorized trails, etc.

Public Hearing regarding proposed amendments to the GC Land Use Code to help address UTV noise.

Background:

• At the October 20, 2020 Joint City-County meeting, the County Commission formally initiated proceedings to amend the LUC related to vehicle sales, rentals and leasing and outfitter, guide services and facilities and passed a moratorium on all new ATV business licenses in the County. The statutory deadline to amend the LUC is April 18, 2021; there is no statutory deadline to amend Title 5 (Business Licenses) of the Grand County General Ordinances.
• The County’s ability to limit the maximum sound pressure levels of UTVs is constrained to some extent by state law; however, the County is working on an extensive overhaul of its noise ordinance (setting dbA limits for ALL vehicles) and its business license ordinance (including setting a db(A) maximum for UTV fleets owned and used by UTV businesses in the County). Currently, the County only has five UTV Businesses that rent UTVs or guide UTV tours with the largest fleet being 30. As of March 17, all of these UTV rental/guide businesses have submitted their inventories, and we have 67 ATV units in the County.

PC discussed proposed amendments and eventually voted unanimously to recommend to the GC Commission that the Land Use Code be amended as follows: making UTV rentals and outfitters Conditional Uses in the General Bus., Hwy Comm’l and Resort Comm’l zones; requiring identifying stickers on rental UTVs; requiring rental businesses to provide inventory list; limiting outfitter UTV caravans to 5 vehicles including guide; limiting UTV rental fleet size to 12/business, grandfathering existing fleet sizes >12; requiring rental UTVs not exceed 80 dbA but staff will research lower UTV dbA goals; requiring noise compliance for UTV rental/outfitter businesses by Jan 31, 2022 but would extend option of trailering to trailhead through Jan. 31, 2023.