After a sometimes heated series of discussions regarding maintenance of a private road off Bartlett Lane outside Cody ended with Park County Commissioners upholding a decision by public works to allow the road to not be upgraded, commissioners last week approved a sketch plan of a minor subdivision along that road.

Park County planner Kim Dillivan said there were letters opposed to the subdivision and in support. He said the owners of the properties to be subdivided agreed to jointly maintain the road.

The status of the road led to a series of previous meetings, after a neighbor whose land is adjacent to the private River Ridge Road requested the approval of administrative relief on the road be appealed. The neighbor said the road should be upgraded and widened due to an increase in traffic.

Park County Engineer Brian Edwards disputed this assertion and did tests to gauge traffic levels, determining they did not meet a higher level that would necessitate a larger road.

At the Aug. 15 hearing, neighbor Jim Daugherty, who had spoken against the granting of administrative relief, questioned Colin Simpson, the attorney for the groups asking for the subdivision, about a previous opinion he had given regarding the road.

Daugherty said Simpson’s letter had said the burden on the road should not be increased, which he said the subdivision would do, while Simpson countered that his 2017 letter had nothing to do with the current matter as it only referred to the original parcel of land owned by landowner Ted Harvey. He is subdividing the land into three lots, one roughly four acres, one five, and the rest 19 acres, which will still be in hay production. While the area is zoned for five-acre minimum lot sizes, by using lot size averaging, the subdivision is allowed.