Planning commissioners recommend vacating unused County Road L 63.7 to enable lot-line adjustment for future wastewater site

Planning commissioners voted to recommend that the Board of County Commissioners approve vacating the entirety of County Road L 63.7, a short, overgrown segment that staff said no longer provides access to other parcels and is blocked by a Colorado Department of Transportation guardrail.

The recommendation, made at the Planning Commission’s Oct. 9 meeting in Norwood, stems from an application submitted by the Town of Mountain Village on behalf of the Alexander Ranch. County planning staff said the vacation would allow a lot-line adjustment to create a roughly 5-acre parcel intended for a future regional wastewater facility and would give the property owners more flexibility for future development.

County planner Nicholas (County staff) told commissioners the road segment lies between L 63.5 and Highway 145, has “grown in” and does not provide a connection to the highway after CDOT constructed a passing lane and guardrail. He said the application materials meet the standards for a right-of-way vacation and that no replacement road is required because no parcels rely on this right-of-way for access.

Michelle Olsen, assistant town manager for Mountain Village, represented the application at the meeting. Olsen said the road has not been established by easement, conveyance or plat and is functionally unused. She described the vacation as a practical cleanup of a “leftover road segment” that would facilitate a separate subdivision-exemption lot-line adjustment going next to the Board of County Commissioners.

Commissioners asked whether the Colorado Department of Transportation and adjoining landowners had been notified; staff said CDOT had been notified and had no comment. Commissioners also asked whether vacating the road would be reversible if a wastewater plant is not ultimately built; staff replied the vacation can stand on its own merits but noted later actions about the wastewater site would be handled separately.

During discussion, property owner Dave Alexander said the family sometimes parks trailers and horse trailers on the unused right-of-way and that they do not plan to fence it, though they might post it to discourage parking. No members of the public offered testimony during the public-comment period for this item.

Commissioner Brett moved to recommend approval of the vacation to the Board of County Commissioners; another commissioner seconded. The motion passed and staff will forward the commission’s recommendation and the application package to the BOCC for final action by resolution.

The vacation process is a two-step review that begins with the Planning Commission’s recommendation and ends with final BOCC action. County staff said public notice for the Planning Commission hearing was published and that required mailings and postings were completed on Sept. 10. The BOCC will consider the item at a later, separately noticed meeting.

If the BOCC adopts the vacation, county staff said it will not leave any parcel without access to a public road; the county’s review concluded the segment does not currently serve other parcels and therefore no replacement road is required.

Next steps: The Planning Commission’s recommendation and the full application package will be transmitted to the Board of County Commissioners for a decision by resolution. The applicant and county staff indicated related lot-line adjustment hearings will follow at the BOCC level and that other approvals will be required before any wastewater project moves forward.

Speakers quoted in this article are listed in the speakers section below.