Big game and agriculture overlays and 20 acre lot size minimums were top concerns of the vast majority of people who spoke Tuesday at a public hearing on the proposed Park County Land Use Plan.

Simply, most people were concerned about the new land use plan leading to regulations that restrict their property rights.

That general consensus was established as many of the more than 40 people spoke during the nearly three hour afternoon meeting.

It was a major part of the reason the commissioners decided to hold off on a final vote on the new plan until they can change some wording to address some of those concerns.

Commission Chair Dossie Overfield said she’d speak with County Attorney Bryan Skoric on how many steps back in the process they need to go in order to make wording changes in the document and then re-certify the plan.

“I’m hearing three issues, the wildlife overlay, the ag overlay and the 20 acre lot size, those are the three things we can look at,” she said.

People spoke of concerns that having land in a big game overlay would restrict what they could do with it and even how their land would be valued. In response to commissioner comments that the overlay is simply educational, some worried that it wouldn't always be simply educational. People had similar concerns in regards to the ag overlay, which has actually been in place in the county since the 1998 land use plan.

Many noted what commissioners said about the two overlays being more about education than regulation, but worried new commissioners down the road may wield them with more regulatory effect, such as preventing someone with land in the ag overlay from subdividing, or preventing someone in a big game overlay from adding a use to their land.

Cody developer and auction company owner Harold Musser drew some of the loudest applause of the afternoon as he boiled down most of those present’s concerns.

“What this is really about is our rights. We can sugar coat it into ag overlays, big game overlays,” he said, adding, “This is determining who has the rights to divide their land and who doesn’t. It’s not about the neighbor next door. Let the market take care of these problems, the market will speak.”

See next week’s Powell Tribune for more on the land use plan discussions.