Grand County planning panel recommends denying rezoning of Raven’s Rim parcel

The Grand County Planning and Zoning Board voted to recommend denial of a request to rezone roughly 234 acres identified as parcel 0300360063 from Range and Grazing to Resort Commercial, saying the county lacks the procedural and technical information needed to support a wholesale upzoning.

Planning staff summarized the application and recommended denial, saying the parcel “needs to be annexed to the city” and that changing the zoning to a broad commercial category would amount to spot zoning and raise access and infrastructure questions. Chrissy Hawthorne, planning staff, told commissioners the parcel is “accessed via Hell’s Revenge, which is a Class D road,” and that the most intense potential uses must be considered when reviewing a rezone.

The applicant and property owners said the land already functions primarily as a recreation and tourism site. “All we’re asking now is the zoning to recognize the reality that it actually exists on the ground right now,” said Mark Steen,…