The Park County Commissioners aren’t prepared to approve the new land use plan just yet.

At a Tuesday meeting before more than 30 people, commissioners unanimously agreed to vote to deny approval of the proposed land use plan so some of the language can be adjusted to ease the fears of people who are worried it could lead to more restrictive regulations.

“I’m hearing we can change this land use plan anytime, why not do it now?” Commissioner Lee Livingston asked. “Why can’t anytime be now?”

Commission Chair Dossie Overfield and Planning and Zoning Commission Chair Kimberly Wintermote said after the meeting that the next step would likely be another joint work session between both groups to hash out the changes.

P&Z would then need to again certify the plan, after which the county commissioners would again be in the position to vote to approve.

The decision came two weeks after commissioners held a public hearing on the plan which went for hours and drew many comments, almost all concerned that parts of the plan would restrict their private property rights. Instead of voting on the plan at that time, commissioners determined to decide on the matter Tuesday after hearing from county attorney Bryan Skoric on what would happen if they didn’t vote to approve.

Before commissioners made their decision, Park County Planning Director Joy Hill laid out the current proposed new land use plan and argued that its flexibility and more exact overlay maps already address a lot of the concerns people have raised over big game and ag overlays limiting development. She also said while there will be areas such as some of those in GRP zoning which allows one acre minimums, that would see lot size minimums grow, there is no thought of a blanket 20-acre minimum ruling. Hill said the plan takes into account areas near infrastructure and services, mostly near towns, that could allow divisions as small as one-fourth acre lots, while lands further out would gradually go from one to five acre lots to 20 acre lots in the more rural areas.

“The current plan ended up with 55% of the land in rural areas zoned down to 1 acre minimums,” she said, adding, “If all the lands were split, we would be looking at capacity for 424K housing units. I don’t think that’s what was intended then and isn’t intended for a long time to come in Park County.”

She said for the ag overlay specifically, land slated is tied to lands the USDA has identified as prime ag land, mostly tied to irrigated land. Hill said they took out such land closest to cities to allow for development, but the new overlay still nearly doubled what the overlay covered in the 1998 plan.

Hill also noted the variety of allowances that would be allowed with subdividing.

“You’re giving people flexibility still,” Hill said, adding that the commissioners have often allowed subdivisions within the current ag overlay to proceed.

“The bottom line: Park County cannot support or sustain the current density allowances in several areas,” she said to end her presentation, adding, “At the end of the day, it’s not necessarily even about the rate of growth. It’s about managing growth when and where it occurs. The proposed land use plan is an attempt to clarify our goals and make more predictable decisions about land development.”