Gilpin County approves contract up to $110,000 to hire Fairfield & Woods to rewrite zoning code

The Gilpin County Board of County Commissioners on July 22 authorized a contract with Fairfield & Woods, PC to complete a full rewrite of the county’s land-use (zoning) code.

The work is part of a multi-piece Strong Communities grant (DOLA) that funds a housing needs assessment, a zoning/code update and public-infrastructure standards. County planners said an initial zoning draft was incomplete and county staff recommended hiring Fairfield & Woods to finish the code rewrite and reconcile internal conflicts.

Jamie Boyle, Gilpin County community development director, told the board the project had been underway since February and that additional legal-drafting work was needed to complete the code and incorporate local nuances such as wildfire and federal land interfaces. Boyle said portions of the code “are structurally deficient” and that the county’s consulting team and staff need to finish a consolidated, working draft for review by the planning commission and the public.

The contract the board approved has a not-to-exceed value of $110,000. County staff said $70,895 remains in the project budget under the DOLA award; of that sum $15,581 represents the county match and $55,314 is grant award funding. Staff asked the board to authorize an additional $39,105 so Fairfield & Woods could complete the work without pausing for a new procurement or supplemental funding step.

County attorney John Messenger asked the board to remove a phrase in the draft resolution that required the county attorney to “approve as to form” the Fairfield & Woods contract because the county attorney’s office would be advising on the project and a conflicts-of-interest issue could arise if the county attorney also reviewed and negotiated the same contract. The board agreed and the resolution struck that language.

Fairfield & Woods’ representative briefly described a decades-long practice drafting land-use and zoning codes for communities across the country and said the firm would aim to produce a stable container of code provisions that could be amended as needed. Staff said the project remains grant-supported and that they expect the bulk of the drafting work to occur over the next several months. Boyle suggested a target for final adoption in the spring following planning-commission review; project work will include legal review, public outreach and multiple drafts.

A motion to approve the contract and authorize the county manager to execute it carried unanimously.

Ending: County staff said they would return with a timeline and with revised public outreach steps as the new draft becomes ready for planning-commission review.