Community development director flags aging code, scanning project and grant bids

Derek Payne, Jefferson County Community Development, delivered the department's quarterly briefing, telling the Board that permit and planning activity remains generally on track but that the county's comprehensive plan and zoning code are due for a full audit.

"A a proper audit, has not been done since periodic review ended, which I believe is 2006," Payne said, arguing that modern practice supports a 10–20 year refresh cycle. He described increases in conditional‑use requests and said staff are seeing more replacement dwellings, medical‑hardship permits and temporary uses — trends that could justify rewriting or prescriptively expanding allowable uses to reduce staff time on conditional‑use hearings.

Payne also briefed the board on an operational scanning project: a vendor is scheduled to begin on‑site after Thanksgiving and complete scanning, OCR indexing and return of records in roughly 120 days. He reviewed two grant efforts: a state Department of Energy community renewables planning grant (seeking funds for resilience/renewable infrastructure planning) and a DSCD technical assistance grant to fund a code audit (not to rewrite code but to identify where local code diverges from state or federal requirements).

Commissioners asked about examples of code violations and about staffing. Payne apologized for a minor formatting omission in his report and emphasized staff capacity: "I'd like to apologize sincerely to commissioner Cinerlink for not including the logo on the cover sheet of my report here," he said. He said two vacant positions are close to being filled; one candidate has given a verbal acceptance and a written offer is forthcoming.

Why it matters: the department's recommendations — a code audit, targeted rewrites and scanning county files — would shape land‑use reviews and staffing needs for years to come. The board approved a separate salary order later in the meeting tied to staffing steps Payne described.