Larimer County debates notice methods after public‑input pilot finds postcards miss rural residents

Larimer County commissioners discussed whether to align land‑use notice practices with the county code after staff piloted a public‑input tool and audited current outreach. At the March 31, 2025, work session staff described gaps between what the Land Use Code requires and what planning staff routinely do to notify nearby residents.

Leslie Ellis, director of Community Planning, Infrastructure and Resources, explained that the department has been using a public‑input platform for several recent cases and that the tool’s visual summaries show positive, neutral and negative comment clusters. Shalena Lysat, business operations supervisor, told the board that neighbor‑notice mailings often fail in rural areas because many properties lack roadside mailboxes. “We are able to put in a parcel and then identify the 500‑foot radius,” Lysat said, describing how staff currently expand those boundaries to capture subdivisions and noncontiguous parcels — a manual step that increases staff time.

Costs and data from the pilot: Staff reported that postcards cost about $0.78 each to produce and mail. For roughly 58 cases in the last 15 months, the department sent neighbor notice postcards that are not required by code; that additional outreach cost about $12,000. Staff also tested a QR‑coded postcard for a PRPA case: 207 postcards were mailed and 6.68% of public‑input site visitors arrived via that postcard link. Shalena Lysat said manipulating assessor parcel data to expand the notice boundary can turn a 15‑minute task into roughly a 75‑minute task per case.

Legal and policy constraints: County attorney Frank Hough reminded commissioners that Colorado law leaves distance notice requirements to local code: “Whatever you guys decide is the notice, is what the notice is,” he said. That means the Board can revise the code to change distances or methods, but once a standard is set the county must apply it consistently to avoid legal challenges.

Options discussed: Commissioners raised several possible responses — keep doing the extra neighbor postcards while gathering more performance data, switch to improved on‑site signage with a required affidavit/photo to confirm posting, or better target notice types to case categories. Commissioners expressed caution about reducing mailing practices until staff can present more evidence. Commissioner Jody Shattuck McNally said she supported keeping additional outreach in the short term and urged better signage and verification; other commissioners stressed the need for an efficient, consistent approach given staff time and budget tradeoffs.

Next steps: Staff offered to return with more refined data on staff time and costs, examples of alternative signage, and proposed code changes if the Board wishes to align practice with the Land Use Code. Staff suggested a joint work session with the Planning Commission to dig into tradeoffs and to determine whether to change the code’s notice distances or to formalize the department’s current practices.