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Pitkin County officials warn of packed land-use calendar, staffing pinch in early 2026
Summary
County staff told commissioners that a cluster of public projects, state-mandated code changes and personnel gaps will create heavy Planning & Zoning and staff workloads in Q1 2026, and asked the board to consider prioritization and possible additional resources.
Pitkin County staff told the Board of County Commissioners on Oct. 21 that a convergence of public projects, state deadlines and planned staff absences is likely to strain land-use review capacity in the first quarter of 2026.
The county’s deputy manager, Carol Silvernoegel, and Community Development Director Suzanne Wolf told the board that projects from local and neighboring jurisdictions — including hydroelectric dam work by the City of Aspen, county capital projects, and the county’s comprehensive plan adoption — are clustering into a narrow window that will require extra reviews by county planners, the Planning and Zoning Commission and the BOCC.
Wolf said the department is facing “a little bit of a capacity crunch” because experienced staff will be temporarily unavailable: “Leslie Lamont is retiring at the end of the year, and Tammy Cochin will be on maternity leave for the first couple of months of 2026,” she said. Wolf added that those…
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