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Lake County imposes six‑month moratorium on new backcountry and large‑event development
Summary
The Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved Resolution 2026‑06, a temporary moratorium on new land‑use applications for group camps, guest ranches, private resorts, campgrounds and certain special events, while staff rewrites decades‑old code and develops infrastructure and hazard standards.
The Lake County Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously Feb. 17 to impose a temporary moratorium on the submission, acceptance, processing and approval of new land‑use applications for group camps, vacation lodges, RV parks and campgrounds, private resorts, guest ranches, special event facilities and major entertainment events in unincorporated Lake County.
Ann Schneider, the county’s community planning and development director, presented the resolution and described a six‑month work plan intended to revise long‑unused code and close regulatory gaps. “This is just an area of our code that has really gone untouched for decades,” Schneider said, adding that staff will focus on infrastructure standards (water, sewer, access), emergency management requirements and a backcountry definition tailored to local conditions.
The moratorium, Schneider said, is meant to buy time for a careful planning process that includes early public outreach, a comparative analysis of peer mountain and resort jurisdictions, and site‑specific risk reviews. She told the board that staff will communicate with applicants already in the pipeline and that applications received prior to adoption would proceed under the prior rules. County Attorney Matt clarified that “anything that applications that have been received prior to the resolution being adopted would proceed under the old [code]” and not be subject to the moratorium.
Commissioners pressed staff on capacity and timing. Schneider said the department plans to hire an additional planner and that the work plan is front‑loaded; she acknowledged it might require a short extension if midprocess review shows more depth is needed. “We will be communicating early in our process, midway in our process if we would ever need to ask for an extension of time,” Schneider said. Several commissioners noted the trade‑off between consistency and delay: approving the moratorium would pause new applications while staff completes the code, but declining it would leave staff to manage incoming applications under an outdated and sometimes inconsistent code.
Property owner David Carer addressed commissioners during public comment, asking whether applications filed before adoption would be exempt; after the presentation Matt confirmed that preexisting submissions would “proceed under the old” rules. Carer also urged the board to consider alternatives such as allowing portable sanitation systems rather than imposing full OWTS (on‑site wastewater treatment system) requirements for seasonal special events.
The board voted to adopt Resolution 2026‑06. The resolution tasks CPD with completing the six‑month work plan, engaging public and interagency stakeholders (public health, emergency management, CDPHE, Lake County Water and Natural Resources, soils conservation district), and preparing draft regulatory language for review at public planning sessions and a later hearing.
Next steps: staff will begin public communications and establish an input portal immediately, perform comparative and infrastructure analyses in the following months, and return draft amendments for public review and planning‑commission work sessions before recommending adoption to the board.
