On Tuesday November 30, 2021, the Chaffee County Planning Commission met for the sixth time to consider the Aspire Tours Limited Impact Review application which was originally submitted in December 2019. Not only has this applicant consumed numerous hours of county staff resources due to deficiencies in required submittal documents, valuable time of the Commissioners in multiple scheduled hearings, but also countless hours by concerned residents submitting letters of opposition and verbal testimony at hearings. The applicant proposes to develop a commercial outfitting facility, seasonal employee camping, and a public campground, with transport to and from recreational activities via 14-passenger vans, on a 44-acre parcel near the end of the unpaved section of CR 190W along the Arkansas River.
The entire area is currently zoned RURAL (RUR). The proposed land use and planned structures are not consistent with the rural character of open rangelands, agricultural lands, and low-density, single-family residences found in this RUR zoning. In December 2020, Chaffee County adopted the 2020 Comprehensive Plan, Together Chaffee County.
“That comprehensive plan and in particular, the Future Land Use Plan, establishes a vision for the physical development of Chaffee County that is a priority for and responsibility of the Chaffee County government explicitly”. The Future Land Use Plan recommends no change to the RUR zoning in the area encompassing the subject property.
The comprehensive plan identifies the County Planning Commission as the stewards for implementation of the new priorities. It also recognized that the current land-use code and planning policies do not enable this vision. Yet at the November 30th meeting, chairman Horne reminded his fellow commissioners that the new comprehensive plan was not the guiding document for this application. “The Together Chaffee County Comprehensive Plan was the culmination of a nearly two-year engagement process anchored by several cycles of community input”. So, the residents of Chaffee County spoke but apparently, the county’s governmental entities aren’t listening.
At the November 30th Planning Commission meeting held virtually, 72 residents were online to participate in the hearing – all in opposition. Other than paid consultants, no one spoke in support of the application. Over the past two years of this process, scores of local residents have submitted numerous, often detailed, letters of opposition to the Aspire Tours application. So many of them have waited to testify in person at previously scheduled hearings than could be accommodated in the time allowed.
Over 600 individuals, two-thirds being county residents, have signed a petition opposing this application. In addition to individual residents, this application raised serious concerns and opposition by the Las Colinas Homeowners Association, the Chaffee County Heritage Area Advisory Board, and the Upper Arkansas Conservation District among others. The record shows an outpouring of opposition from the local community and yet, based on a straw poll conducted at the subsequent December 7, 2021, Planning Commission meeting, the Commissioners plan to approve this application.
One has to wonder if there is any level of public opposition that will sway the Commissioners to deny an application even if it meets the land-use code. The comprehensive plan vocalized the visions and desires of the county’s residents, yet out-of-county developers seem to command the planning process.
R. Topper
Salida
Recent Comments