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Laramie County adopts rewritten land‑use rules, removes $100 home‑occupation fee after heated public hearing
Summary
After hours of public comment, the Laramie County Board of County Commissioners adopted the 2025 Land Use Regulations with amendments that clarify home‑occupation status as a use‑by‑right and remove a proposed $100 home‑occupation fee. Planning staff said the rewrite is intended to simplify permitting, expand certain allowable home uses and grandfather existing operations unless they become nuisances.
The Laramie County Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously to adopt an overhauled set of land‑use regulations on a motion amended after a lengthy public hearing and debate.
Justin Arnold, Laramie County planner, told the board the rewrite — organized into six titles — was designed to reduce unnecessary permitting burdens, clarify standards and modernize older code. Among the key changes he highlighted were expanded allowable home occupations (including limited light‑industrial activity inside accessory buildings), formalized accessory dwelling units (ADUs) as a use by right in urban districts, temporary provisions for RV living with an address and septic requirement, elimination of a costly preliminary subdivision step for many small plats, and a new simple‑site‑plan path intended to cut engineering costs for small businesses.
"We deregulated everything that I thought was commonsensical on the front end," Arnold said, summarizing staff work that he said included outreach (news events, radio, thousands of emails and multiple public meetings). "We want people…
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