BY GAIL BINKLY

With rural landowners signing up for zoning choices as fast as the county can handle them, the favorite zone so far is proving to be AR 35+, according to Loretta Murphy of the county planning office.

"It seems to be our most popular," she said.

The designation, which allows agricultural and residential uses on tracts of 35 acres or larger, gives landowners the option of having up to three homes as well in a "clustered" subdivision while keeping the bulk of their tract as agricultural land.

While many owners are also opting for smaller-lot choices, such as AR 3-9, she said, there aren’t as many as county officials had expected.

Jan. 31 has been set as the deadline for landowners to make their choices under the county’s new Landowner-Initiated Zoning system, which was included in the comprehensive plan adopted in December 1996.

The idea behind LIZ is that landowners will be able to decide for themselves what their neighborhoods are like as well as retain the right to develop their land the way they want in the future. But, because the idea is unique in Colorado, no one has been sure exactly what would happen when owners began making their choices.

Some officials feared that owners would all choose small-lot zoning designations in order to retain the right to make the maximum profit off their land in the future.

But, for farmers and ranchers who plan to remain on their property, selecting larger ag-residential zones makes it clear to current and future neighbors that ag operations will be going on there, with their attendant noise and odor, and preserves ag rights.

Apparently, many Montezuma County residents are opting to retain the agricultural nature of their areas rather than go for the smallest-scale zones.

Already, one small-lot subdivision near Yellow Jacket was rejected by the planning commission because the surrounding landowners had already zoned their property for large-scale agriculture.

"We said all along, if you had a neighborhood that had established a particular zoning pattern such as low-density and there was a proposal for a high-density use, that’s going to be looked at very closely," said Commission Chairman Gene Story on Monday.

Under LIZ, property owners have a menu of zoning choices ranging from R-3 (strictly residential lots of three acres, the smallest normally allowed by the county) to A-80 (agricultural uses on tracts 80 acres or greater).

Obviously, the size and location of a parcel is a factor in what zoning can be selected for it.

Larger zoning choices can be granted to owners when they apply for them. In other words, if someone chooses to zone his or her property A-80, AR 35+, AR 10-34, or Unzoned, that designation can be placed on the tract immediately.

However, other zoning choices are only considered "preferences" and can’t be automatically granted to the owner, who must provide more information and go through a hearing process to get the final OK.

For instance, small-lot zoning choices can’t be approved without going through the regular subdivision process, and landowners likewise can’t zone their property commercial or industrial without coming up with a specific plan for the type of business they want to operate and following the permit process.

A group of real-estate agents met with the county commissioners Monday to clarify such issues, raising the question of what happens if the owner of a large tract wants to reserve the right to use it for commercial purposes.

Bob Durant said the owner of an 81-acre tract along the highway wanted to list it as commercial but was told he could not.

County Administrator Tom Weaver said the owner could, in fact, choose to have the entire property given a commercial zoning preference — although it would be better if he could separate off the actual portion that would be commercial — but the choice would not be "locked in" until the owner came up with specifics about the type of business and went through a public hearing.

"A commercial zone means nothing unless there’s an actual permit tied to it," Weaver said, warning that, without a permit and a specific plan, a commercial or industrial designation is tantamount to being unzoned — an option under LIZ.

But being unzoned has its drawbacks, Weaver said. On unzoned parcels, if the landowner later wants to change his land use, he must go through a public hearing.

"When we first started this, I thought the way to go was just to leave your land unzoned," Weaver said. "But I’ve totally changed my mind because of some of the things we’ve seen.

"You’ll have a zoning hearing (when the owner wants to change from unzoned to a specific zone, perhaps in order to subdivide) and your neighbors will come in and say, ‘We thought that was going to be open space — don’t change it.’ "

County planner Karen Welch said the planning office had processed 285 zoning requests from July 1998 through December 1999, but had done 300 just from Jan. 3 through Monday.

However, a large number of tracts remain unzoned. Weaver estimated Monday that about 25 percent of the county’s rural tracts been given a zone or zoning preference, leaving three-quarters still to be done.

A workshop is set today in the county courthouse from 2 to 7:30 p.m. for landowners wanting assistance making their zoning choices or obtaining "letter permits" for their existing rural businesses.