Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Short Term Rentals topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Larimer commissioners split on short-term rental access rules; allow multiple units but deny waiver for road-width standard
Summary
The board approved an appeal allowing multiple short-term rental units on a property in the Estes Valley (limited to 10 total overnight guests), but denied a separate appeal to waive local roadway and access standards required for short-term rentals, citing safety and future-traffic concerns.
The Larimer County Board of County Commissioners on July 28 approved an appeal allowing more than one short-term rental unit on a single property in the Estes Valley Accommodation (EVA-1) zone, but denied a separate appeal seeking relief from local roadway access standards for an access route on Griffith Court.
The board voted 3-0 to allow the property owner to operate multiple short-term rental units at 1121 Griffith Court, provided the total number of overnight guests across all units does not exceed 10 and that each short-term rental structure receive separate approval and a license number through the site-plan review process. That approval follows staff findings that the first appeal met applicable land-use criteria when conditioned to limit overall occupancy.
The second appeal sought an administrative waiver of Larimer County short-term rental access standards (Article 3.3.5(b)(2)(a)(ii) and Appendix G roadway/access standards), which generally require a 20-foot-wide all-weather surface or intermittent turnouts at defined intervals. Staff reported that a professional engineering report found Griffith Court varies from about 15 to 20 feet in width and narrows to about 13 feet at a mature tree. Engineering staff said they administratively consider roads within 10% of the standard but prefer board-level decisions where the deviation is larger.
Larimer County Engineering testified that, while the Estes Valley Fire Protection District indicated it could reach the property, the narrower road and lack of formal turnouts become a greater concern as additional units increase average daily traffic and emergency response complexity. After deliberation, the board voted to deny the waiver for the roadway/access standard; the denial passed 2-1.
Diane Bridal, landscape architect and project consultant for the applicant, described site features including a looped driveway and said the lot meets EVA-1 density thresholds to build multiple residences (approximately 10,890 square feet of land per unit is required in EVA-1). A member of the public, Kate Ellard of Estes Park, spoke in favor of allowing multiple accommodation units, citing historical and zoning context for Estes Valley’s accommodation zoning.
County staff noted that, if the appeals are granted, the applicant still must complete the required site-plan review and building-permit processes for each structure. Staff also noted that the administrative site-plan review in EVA-1 would be handled by county planning staff and not by the board.
The board’s split decision allows the property owner to move forward with pursuing separate site-plan approvals for multiple short-term rental structures, while preserving county roadway-access standards for safety and future traffic management.
