Pitkin County officials warn of packed land-use calendar, staffing pinch in early 2026

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 absences, combined with a heavier-than-usual slate of complex applications and the comprehensive plan adoption hearings, will require senior staff to pick up additional review work.

Why this matters: Several projects must complete land-use steps before permits or earthmoving can proceed. The county also faces a state-mandated deadline to adopt a wildfire resiliency code by April 1, 2026 — a change that will require land-use and building-code amendments and thus must go to Planning and Zoning before the BOCC. Wolf said the wildfire amendments are targeted for Planning and Zoning in January and BOCC hearings in February–March to meet that April deadline.

County and intergovernmental projects referenced in the discussion include two City of Aspen hydroelectric-related dam projects (Ruedi and Maroon Creek dams) with construction timelines tied to federal funding, a county solid-waste center project, and “Phillips L and E,” which staff currently estimate could come in spring–summer 2026. Wolf said the comprehensive plan adoption will require “at least three” public Planning and Zoning hearings and that staff are “thinking realistically” about hearings in February, March and April.

Commissioners pressed staff on possible mitigations. Commissioner Kelly suggested asking the City of Aspen to submit materials earlier, saying, “the sooner they get them to us, then the more time we have.” Commissioner Jeffrey emphasized options for re-prioritizing items (he identified the employee housing impact fee as a possible higher priority) and asked whether private consultants could be hired to handle caseloads. Wolf said the department has generally tried to keep reviews in-house and has not identified an existing outside contractor ready to take on caseload work.

Staff urged the board to consider that some items are tightly time‑constrained (state or federal timelines) while others can slip into Q2 or Q3. Silvernoegel and Wolf proposed that the board treat the housing impact fee and the comprehensive plan adoption as items that could be delayed if needed, while projects with external funding deadlines (e.g., Aspen’s federal grant-linked work) would be harder to move.

The board and staff also discussed Planning and Zoning Commission capacity: one commissioner on P&Z will be on maternity leave through January, complicating quorum and scheduling. Wolf said staff will continue conversations with P&Z about meeting frequency and length, and that staff will flag items that are likely to require BOCC review after P&Z recommendation.

Ending: Staff said they will return with a refined schedule and resource options, including whether extra P&Z meetings or short-term staffing support are feasible. Commissioners asked staff to continue outreach to submitting agencies so timelines can be coordinated and to bring a prioritized list back for a future work session.