After more than two years of work, of revisions, public meetings and comments, the Park County Commissioners will have a chance to certify and finalize a new land use plan at their second meeting in March.

The new Adoption Draft of the updated Park County Land Use Plan was certified Jan. 23 by the Planning and Zoning Commission. The next step in the process is the board of County Commissioners’ consideration of endorsement of the plan. They will hold a public hearing on March 19 at 2 p.m. in the Cody Auditorium, after which they may or may not vote to certify the plan.

Last fall, enough questions were raised by members of the public at the hearing that they chose to hold work sessions with P&Z to hash out revised wording to send to consultants Clarion. That restarted the whole certification process, which led to P&Z holding a public hearing Jan. 23 to once again certify this new revised plan.

Park County Planning Director Joy Hill said the lengthy process could delay some of the regulation process, but she said after the Tuesday meeting that they may do it in two phases. They can tackle the “low hanging fruit” of regulations that simply need to conform to state statute and the like, while waiting until the county commissioners certify the land use plan before starting work on the regulations tied to the new land use plan language such as big zoning amendments. 

In the meantime, the certified copy of the plan, referred to as the Adoption Draft, is now available for public viewing online. A hard copy of the plan is in each of the county libraries.

— By Zac Taylor