Commission discusses full Land Use & Development rewrite and whether to fast-track energy rules

County planning staff presented an updated timeline and red-line comparisons for a complete rewrite of the Land Use & Development Ordinance. Tristan Borkwin, assistant planning director, told the commission that phase 2 and phase 3 each increased by roughly one week due to staff training and spring break and that he removed a separate 'likely' timeline because best-case and likely-case scenarios were essentially identical in his view.

Commissioners debated whether the alternative-energy (energy) chapter could be pulled out of the comprehensive rewrite and adopted separately to move faster. The chair asked whether pulling the energy chapter out would give locally affected areas more say via the conditional-use permit process; Borkwin replied that the chapter relies on cross-references and a shared definitions chapter, and pulling it out would require extra staff time to make it standalone. He cautioned that adopting an energy chapter first could require the comprehensive ordinance to reference a draft rather than enacted law.

Borkwin also confirmed the commission’s earlier direction to exclude battery storage systems from the draft "at this time" and noted the distinction between the solar ordinance that had been processed during the moratorium (solar-only) and a standalone alternative-energy chapter.

Several commissioners urged trying to compress the schedule (some asking staff to "shoot for May"), while staff warned that doing one chapter independently could delay the remainder of the rewrite by several months if not staffed exclusively. The planner said best-case adoption/publishing timing could mean the ordinance appears in the official journal by early July in the best case, subject to publication and administrative deadlines.

What’s next: staff will discuss scheduling with council and the planning and zoning board, attempt to compress timelines where feasible, and return with drafts and a more detailed work schedule.