Carbon County adopts comprehensive plan and Greenways Trails & Open Space Plan

The Carbon County Board of Commissioners adopted the county Comprehensive Plan and the Greenways, Trails and Open Space Plan on June 8, 2025 following a presentation from the project manager and a recommendation to move both documents to final adoption.

Tim Staub, the project manager for the plan, told the board the two parallel planning documents emerged from a 16-month process that began in January 2024 and included outreach such as pop-up events at the county fair, meetings with municipalities and online engagement. “We prepared 2 planning documents for the county… this process started back in January 24. It was a 16 month process,” Staub said, summarizing the schedule and engagement approach.

Staub outlined the plans’ structure and key findings: differences in housing demand across county geographies; regional infrastructure issues that several municipalities flagged; increases in childcare costs (he said overall childcare costs rose about 12% over five years, and for some single-parent households costs rose as much as 40%); and use of cell‑phone data showing roughly 60% of recreational visitors come from within 50 miles, indicating local use of county amenities.

The comprehensive plan groups priorities under four themes—housing, outdoor economy, infrastructure and placemaking—while the Greenways and Trails plan emphasizes being connected, protected and plentiful to support outdoor recreation and the tourism economy. Each plan includes implementation tables that identify recommended lead parties, timelines, priority objectives and potential grants and loan opportunities.

Staub said both documents were advertised and placed on the county website for public review as required by the Municipalities Planning Code and that the county planning commission had approved them to move forward. Commissioners then voted to adopt both plans. The meeting minutes record the vote on both adoption motions as affirmative for the commissioners present.

With adoption complete, staff said implementation will rely on coordination with local municipalities and regional partners and on pursuing identified funding opportunities. The plans include suggested grant targets and named implementation leads to help move projects from plan to action.

The board’s actions: adopt the Carbon County Comprehensive Plan and the Greenways, Trails and Open Space Plan and direct staff to proceed with implementation steps identified in the plans.