Boulder County

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Boulder County - January 19, 2007

PLANNING COMMISSION SUPPORTS BROAD MORATORIA AUTHORITY

On January 17, 2007 the Boulder County Planning Commission endorsed a proposal to expand the county commissioner’s authority to impose building moratoria in unincorporated area of the county. The Commissioners are looking to grant themselves increased power to implement moratoria to halt or suspend development whenever they are considering changes in county land use rules. State law already allows the county to halt permit issuance for up to six months. The proposed new authority goes will beyond these provisions and includes halting development applications and application processing, and would seem to allow unlimited moratoria extensions. BARA and the Longmont Association of Realtors® have sent the proposed language to NAR asking the land use law firm of Robinson and Cole to issue an opinion and recommendations on the legislation. Clearly, the Commissioners are not seeking this additional authority if they do not intend to use it. BARA staff research indicates that the Commissioners, once they approve the new rules, will move quickly to establish development moratoria and proceed with plans to adopt rules limiting the size of new homes and some additions to homes in unincorporated Boulder County. Staff also believes that the commissioners will attempt to establish a Transferable Development Rights (TDR) system that will allow applicant to enlarge their homes beyond proposed maximum sizes only after purchasing a development right and preserving the TDR site. Since Boulder County does not approve subdivisions (hasn’t since the early 1970’s) the burden of these new limitations will fall on individual property owners. Look for additional action on this by March