Jefferson County planning staff delivered a final-draft briefing on Together Jeffco's comprehensive plan and the Transportation Mobility Plan (TMP), summarizing outreach, substantive changes since the partial draft and next steps toward adoption.

"Jefferson County is a sustainable community that balances innovation, inclusivity, resiliency, and stewardship," Heather Gutlerless, long range planning supervisor, read from the draft vision statement as she outlined key additions to the comprehensive plan, including a new forward, expanded chapter goals and an adaptable implementation chapter. Gutlerless said the draft ties the comprehensive plan to related work including the TMP, the Community Wildfire Protection Plan and the county's 15-year housing plan.

Staff described an extensive public engagement program for the draft: notices by email and postcard to more than 2,000 recipients, social media outreach, a Nextdoor blurb, and five public meetings across Arvada, Evergreen, Golden, Conifer and Littleton with roughly 100 participants in total. The comment period on the full draft was stated as closing the day after the briefing.

Major substantive changes staff identified in the comprehensive plan draft include a new forward, clearer plan structure and administration language that reiterates the plan is advisory rather than regulatory, expanded goals and policies in chapters on land use, housing, economic development and implementation, and new appendices that add the county profile and summaries of area plans.

On land use, staff said the draft clarifies "primary uses and secondary uses" for future land-use categories to allow limited multifamily or other uses in activity centers while preserving other functions such as retail and services. Staff also added language intended to protect mobile home parks and to acknowledge the county's existing mobile-home-park district and associated statutory protections for residents. "We are planning on retaining that district because for some state statutes, that district will help give those mobile home park residents some protections," staff said, adding that the plan's policies reinforce preserving existing mobile-home parks in descriptions and use lists.

Several commissioners and staff addressed concerns raised in emails and public comments about transit-oriented communities (TOCs) and upzoning required by state law. County staff repeated that the county is required by state statute to accommodate higher densities in certain transit areas but said the county can target how and where upzoning occurs rather than uniformly rezoning entire swaths. "There is nothing in Together Jeffco, or for that matter, state statute that says anyone's lot in White Acres is going to be subject to eminent domain," a county official said, adding the county does not plan to acquire private property and that rezoning does not automatically trigger redevelopment.

Short-term rentals and accessory dwelling units were also discussed. Staff said short-term rental regulations were under active revision, that comment on the formal short-term-rental draft recently closed, and that regulatory updates would likely make short-term rental allowances more permissive in some areas while seeking predictability. Staff noted several state bills passed recently affect mobile-home protections, short-term rentals and ADUs; they said county attorneys and outside counsel were reviewing statutes to ensure regulatory updates align with new state law.

On transportation, Marnie Ratzel (transportation engineering) and the TMP team described the TMP's six-chapter structure, seven transportation goals and a prioritized list of projects. Key features include updates to the Major Thoroughfare Plan, a new set of key performance indicators (KPIs) to track progress, recommended multimodal corridor projects, sidewalk gap elimination, Vision Zero safety planning and coordination with CDOT and RTD. The TMP includes a list of county-identified projects (37 CDOT projects are noted but not prioritized because they are outside county control) and a project prioritization methodology tied to potential funding sources.

Staff outlined a near-term schedule: transportation staff expect a Planning Commission hearing on the TMP in September and a final-draft release of the comprehensive plan in October with potential Planning Commission consideration in October or November depending on comment volume. Staff said implementation actions will include regulation updates and an annual keystone-indicator report to track progress.

Commissioners and staff agreed to continue community outreach, prepare standardized responses to common questions (for example on TOC impacts and eminent domain), and coordinate with county attorneys and external counsel to ensure legal citations and statutory references in the plan and implementation materials are accurate.

The briefing recorded no final planning commission or Board action on the drafts; staff presented the drafts for comment and next steps to adoption at the Planning Commission.