Park County has a land use plan, and it seems everybody is unhappy with at least some aspects of it. 

Sounds like a perfect compromise plan to me. 

But I’ve already written that editorial about the value of compromise in the land use planning process and creating a plan that may have many things everybody likes, but some things half of the county residents don’t like, and the other half do. No, with the plan having finally been passed after a two-year process, it’s time to hand out some appreciation. 

Above all else, what inspired me during my extensive (read: long and at times grinding) coverage of a new land use plan was the participation of residents. At the meetings I attended, from those in Homesteader Hall to  Grizzly Hall to the last at the Cody Auditorium, people from so many different walks of life, from so many parts of the county and with so many different views, attended meetings. 

And that’s just what I saw — I didn’t go to meetings in Meeteetse, Clark, Wapiti or other areas, but I’ve heard of how well attended they were. A resident in Clark took some pictures for us at a meeting up there that it seemed half the town attended. 

While obviously many people in the county didn’t participate, either in person or on virtual polls, the county and Clarion Consultants, I believe, gave plenty of different opportunities for everybody who wanted to be involved to do so. 

Clarion’s Darcie White at numerous times throughout the process noted the good turnout of residents. Some of that credit is certainly due to the company which held plenty of sessions for people in various planning areas to share their input, and online surveys for those who couldn’t make a meeting. 

The Denver consultants may have misread a few things amongst residents’ answers, but for the most part, it looks like they captured the desires of residents well. For instance, Powell resident Dona Becker said at the last meeting that while she was one of the many who said they valued wildlife and open spaces highly, that did not mean she did so at the expense of private property rights. When we think about the sometimes heated discussions over the final drafts of the plan, there are really only a few, albeit important, items where people have strongly disagreed. 

Finally, the planning and zoning board members and county commissioners deserve praise, whatever you think of the plan, for the time it took to put this together, the extra meetings, fielding calls and emails from people upset by something or other in the plan. 

While I was able to sit in the audience last Tuesday at the Cody Auditorium, the county commissioners were up on the stage where they listened to people mostly either object to parts of the plan or say, “It’s not great, but it’s probably the best we’re going to get.”

If it were up to me I would have wanted some changes to the plan, too, but this was a community effort, approved by a board of appointed volunteers and then a board of elected officials, all of whom, I believe, settled on a plan that will at least move us to the next step of the process — the regulations. Here’s hoping the community is at least as engaged in the next process as they have been in this one.