Originally written in 1978 and amended several times over the past few decades, the City of Cortez Land Use Code undergoing a makeover this year to make the code more user-friendly for businesses and the general public, while reinforcing the small-town feel that many residents enjoy.
“It’s mostly just the comprehensive update, because there’s really just a lot of little pieces that have been challenging over the years to administer,” said city planner Tracie Hughes. “It’s just time to get some of these things cleaned up.”
Texas-based contractor Kendig Keast Collaborative was recently awarded the $186,915 contract for the rewrite. The city received a $100,000 Energy Impact and Assistance grant, as well as $50,000 from the Gates Family Foundation grant and put up $50,000 in matching funds.
A primary goal of the rewrite is to make the language more accessible to the general public.
“One thing we would like people to know we would like this to be understandable by the average citizen; less jargon-oriented,” said Hughes.
Key elements from the city’s Comprehensive Plan and the Heart & Soul project will also be weaved into the forthcoming land use code rewrite.
Updating code to reflect current community values was one of the biggest initiatives to come out of Heart & Soul, and after extensive surveying, the group found that the over-arching desire among those surveyed the continuity of a “small-town feel” while growing economically.
While the two objectives might seem like they’d be a hard balance to strike, officials contend that it is possible to satisfy both.
“I think you could balance it out with good mixed use development, be smart about your downtown, keep strong walk ability, parks and open space, it’s possible to do both,” said Hale. “This is going to guide development in the city for the next 15 to 20 years. That’s why it’s so important that we incorporate what we’ve learned form people though the comprehensive plan and through Heart & Soul. The code should represent the community vision.”
Hale says Kendig Keast Collaborative also can provide software that syncs commercial real estate listings with zoning maps and code, saving a few research steps for businesses and developers.
“It seems like a great interactive piece for the city,” he said.