El Paso County planning commission unanimously recommends three rezones for Esteban Rodriguez

The El Paso County Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval of three rezoning applications tied to developer Esteban Rodriguez and forwarded the items to the Board of County Commissioners for final action.

The recommendations came during a brief consent agenda at the commission's meeting, where staff corrected acreage figures for two of the applications before commissioners moved to approve each item. Commissioners approved minutes from the commission's March 20 meeting at the start of the hearing.

Planner Ashley Matthew, the project planner for the applications, corrected an error in the staff report for file P2411, saying the rezone to RR-2.5 covers 424 acres, not 369.13 acres as originally published in the staff summary. For file P2412, Matthew confirmed the commercial rezone portion listed as 13.48 acres should in fact be 19.8 acres. "That's the only difference," Matthew said when she offered the corrections.

Commissioner Chad Carlson moved to approve P2411, citing the attached resolution and asking that the item be forwarded to the Board of County Commissioners with two conditions and two notations and no requirement for a finding of water sufficiency. Mr. Marais seconded the motion. Each voting commissioner recorded "aye," and the commission voted unanimously to forward the recommendation.

For P2412, Commissioner Markowitz moved for approval according to the staff resolution with the same conditions and notations and no water-sufficiency finding; Commissioner Whitney seconded. That motion also passed unanimously.

Commissioner Fuller moved to approve the CC241 commercial-community rezone, again forwarding it to the Board of County Commissioners with two conditions and two notations; Commissioner Trowbridge seconded. The commission unanimously recommended approval.

Commissioner Fuller also noted during discussion on one item that the commission had received correspondence from a Mr. Erickson and cautioned the public that "someone telling you that there's a no build zone does not make it a no build zone," advising property buyers to verify land-use restrictions rather than rely solely on a third party's representation.

All three rezoning recommendations will now go to the Board of County Commissioners for consideration. The commission did not make findings requiring a water sufficiency determination for the items it forwarded.

The meeting concluded with a recognition of outgoing Chair Thomas Bailey, who was presented with a certificate of appreciation by Planning Director Megan Harrington. Commissioners noted a small reception after the meeting and confirmed a future meeting date on the 17th.