Commission recommends reducing nonconforming-use abandonment window from two years to one

The Alpine City Planning Commission voted Tuesday to recommend a change to the city’s development code that would shorten the abandonment or discontinuance window for legal nonconforming uses from two years to one year to match state law.

City planner Ryan Robinson told the commission that the current municipal code allows a nonconforming building, structure or use to remain legal for up to two years after abandonment or discontinued use; staff proposed changing that to one year because the state code default is one year. Robinson said the change would align local standards with common practice and prevent a longer local grandfathering period where a use removed from the code could persist for an extra year.

Robinson also said staff and the city attorney recommended removing language that permitted the City Council to reinstate a use after the abandonment period. The commission discussed that council already has an avenue to reinstate uses through a code amendment process and that explicitly preserving a path for the council to reverse prior council choices was unnecessary.

The public hearing had no speakers. Commissioner Troy Slade moved to recommend approval of the proposed code amendment to Section 3.22.009 (Discontinuance or Abandonment) as presented; Michelle Schumer seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

The amendment will be forwarded as a recommendation to the Alpine City Council for final consideration and adoption. City staff said the state code default would apply if the city had no local language, and the change is intended to bring local code and state law into alignment.