Housing development's rejection questioned

Housing development's rejection questioned

Oct. 5, 1999

By Gail Binkly

While noting that they were not making any decision regarding a particular case, the Montezuma County commissioners on Monday defended the principle behind Landowner-Initiated Zoning that allowed the county planning commission to reject a manufactured-housing proposal near Yellow Jacket on Sept. 23.

"Most of the time, our approach is to look not at denial of a project, but mitigation (of adverse impacts)," commission Chairman Gene Story told developer Donald Etnier and his attorney, Rick Beisel.

"But there are obviously going to be things that are proposed in the county that are not going to be a fit, and this is a way to address those areas.

"Prior to LIZ, whatever anybody wanted, they could do -- so we went through this several-year process so people could determine what the fate of their neighborhood was. I think this is the first test case."

Etnier and Beisel had sought clarification of the county's policies under LIZ, the voluntary-zoning system adopted in 1998.

LIZ allows county landowners to select the type of zoning they want for their tract, depending partially on its size. Large-lot zones can be granted as the owner requests them, but obtaining a zoning designation for lots of less than nine acres requires a public hearing and county approval.

Etnier had hoped to create a 20-lot, manufactured-housing subdivision on 80 acres north of Road Z and a mile west of U.S. Highway 666. However, the county planning commission, after listening to a crowd that was vocally opposed to the development, voted 9-0 to recommend against its approval.
A key factor in their decision was the fact that surrounding tracts had all been zoned AR-35+ pr A-80, and the neighbors maintained that the new proposal did not fit the community.

On Monday, Etnier argued that people had rejected the development "based on hysteria" and that "the entire town of Yellow Jacket" had turned out to fight it although many of the citizens did not live nearby.

"If the decisions are based upon the neighbors getting up in arms and being a little hostile, effectively all subdivisions -- all development could literally shut down, based upon enough people getting upset and saying, 'Not in my backyard,'" Etnier said.

"I'm not sure how any development is going to take place at all unless you're going to develop only the worst possible lands where nobody wants to be anyway."

Etnier said he could understand if people opposed putting a nuclear-power plant in an agricultural neighborhood but couldn't comprehend their hostility toward residential housing.

But Story said the whole idea of LIZ was to allow landowners to zone their own neighborhoods and take control of their surroundings.

"That's a noble goal, but I think it flies in the face of the statutes," Beisel said, citing a bill passed in the state legislature in 1999 that states, "No local government shall impose any discretionary condition upon a land-use approval unless the condition is based upon duly adopted standards that are sufficiently specific to ensure that the condition is imposed in a rational and consistent manner."

Beisel added, "I'd like to urge you to think long and hard what the impact of the statute is on that decision."

The commissioners reiterated that they could not make any decision at that time, and that Etnier had the right to appeal to the board in a formal public hearing. They assured him they would consider all the relevant factors at that time.