Cheyenne committee backs text change to assign city zones on annexation

The Cheyenne Public Services Committee voted to recommend Monday night that the City Council adopt a text amendment to the Unified Development Code to change how the city assigns zoning when property is annexed from Laramie County.

The change would stop the previous practice of automatically applying the county's zoning or a direct county-to-city crosswalk. Instead, planning staff would evaluate each annexed parcel’s existing use, surrounding city zoning and uses, and likely future uses and then assign a city zone on a case-by-case basis.

Planning staff presented the amendment as a response to a significant county zoning revision adopted in August. Seth O'Lady of the City of Cheyenne Planning and Development Department told the committee the new approach would better respect neighbors and existing property owners but would be “a little less predictable” for developers who today may expect an automatic crosswalk.

The staff presentation included a case study of a previously annexed ‘county pocket’ near Van Buren and U.S. 30 south of Dell Range that showed how some parcels would have become Mixed Use Business (MUB) under a straight crosswalk from the county’s new LU designation, even though they are surrounded by single-family development. Under the proposed text amendment, many of those parcels would keep the surrounding MR (medium residential) designation instead, while some large parcels could be assigned AR (agricultural residential) where their size and existing agricultural characteristics suggest that.

Committee members pressed staff on process details. Planning staff confirmed the assigned zoning remains a base zone that an applicant may later seek to change; the assigned zoning prevents applicants from being left with an unintended default if their requested zone change fails. The committee also confirmed that annexations, assigned zoning and zone-change applications are all noticed to neighbors and in the newspaper.

Committee member Dr. Aldridge moved approval; Dr. Emmons seconded. The committee voted in favor and will forward a recommendation to the City Council to adopt the ordinance at Monday’s meeting.

The staff presentation and slide deck are part of the public record; Planning staff said no changes were made to the draft since the prior meeting and offered to answer additional questions at council hearings.