The city of Cortez and Logan Simpson Consulting held two open houses on Wednesday, one at the Cortez Chamber of Commerce and the other at City Hall, where residents were welcome to drop in and learn about the land use code updates and give their feedback.
The city and Logan Simpson have been working to update the land use code. Two chapters have been drafted and are available online, where residents can drop comments directly on the documents.
McKayla Dunfey, who is with the Logan Simpson consulting, spoke to a Journal reporter about the updated drafts and the city’s next steps.
The next module of the updates were outlined at the open house. Chapter 4 covers subdivision standards and includes lot and block standards, drainage, water supply and sanitation and utilities. The edits proposed include road classification for consistency with Master Street Plans, incorporating buffer standards from drainages, and incorporating performance bond standards.
Chapter 5 covers site development standards, and includes parking, loading and access, sidewalks, fences and walls, trees, landscaping and screening, lighting and signs. The goal is to update parking standards to reduce requirements for residential and industrial uses. A new lighting section outlining minimal standards will be included, among other edits.
Chapter 7 is a new addition, and will include standards for historical preservation. It outlines the roles and responsibilities of the historical preservation board and the procedures and criteria for historical designation and alteration and demolition.
Dunfey said that this chapter is new to the land use code, but there will not be changes to the existing regulations for historic preservation.
She said the next topics of focus will be landscaping, lighting, and parking, in addition to the topics covered in the drafts of Chapters 1 and 3.
The update will include more specific standards for landscaping on commercial and industrial properties, Dunfey said. Currently, the only requirement is that 10% of the area must be landscaped.
The city and Logan Simpson have considered adding landscaped buffers between different uses on these kinds of properties to create a separation.
The current land use code does not have a lighting section, but the update would include lighting standards that are determined appropriate for Cortez. Dunfey said the lighting standards that are put in place will be influenced by feedback from the community.
Parking standards for residential properties in particular are being reconsidered based on the Housing Action Plan, Dunfey said. The updates would decrease the number of required parking spaces for each dwelling from two to one.
The proposed changes for parking include “reducing multifamily parking requirement from two spaces to one or 1.5,” according to a poster presented at the open houses. Other changes include adjusting the number of parking spaces per square footage of a building and requiring one parking space per two employees for some building types.
Some of these changes will allow the expansion of housing types promoted in specific zone districts in the city. These housing types could include tiny houses and cottage clusters.
A tiny house is defined as a “modular factory built residential structure that is 400 square feet or less,” according to the housing definitions. A cottage cluster is “a grouping of small, compact, detached single-family dwelling units clustered around a common usable area.”
“The updates we made reflect recommendations from the Housing Action Plan, which was passed last year,” Dunfey said.
Drafts of Chapters 1 and 3 are available online at https://www.plan.konveio.com/cortez-land-use-code-update. The community is welcome to read and drop comments directly on the documents, Dunfey said.
Visit the city of Cortez’s website at https://www.cortezco.gov/844/Land-Use-Code-Housing-Policy-Update to learn more about the land use code updates and what the next steps are.
