Subdivision planning could be improved, commissioners say

Even before a two-hour meeting to discuss a subdivision’s preliminary plat stretched to almost six hours on July 12, it was clear to the Lincoln County Commission that parts of the planning process needed to be fixed.

“It was an eye-opener,” Commissioner Mark Peck said in a July 14 interview. “This one stressed the system. I don’t think there’s been anything close to this size.”

The North Star subdivision is planned to contain 144 lots and be located near Rexford. A discussion and vote on its preliminary plat was scheduled for the Commission’s weekly meeting on July 12. All three commissioners — Peck, Jerry Bennett and Mike Cole — voted to approve it after the extended discussion, making clear it had been a trying path to get there.

Cole said it had “been one of the larger challenges I’ve had to face in this job,” while Bennett called it “an extreme learning experience.”

“The plethora of information we’ve delved into has been pretty overwhelming,” Bennett said after the vote, adding that the commissioners considering in a couple weeks what the Lincoln County Planning Board had worked on for months was a “flawed part of the process.”

“I’m disappointed,” he said.

Interviewed over coffee July 14, Peck took a constructive look at next steps.

“Some of the failure of the process is we’re not experts,” he said. “But the process was not followed the way it should have been.”

That lack of expertise — due in part, Peck said, to projects of this size being “not something we see often” — was part of the problem, as was staff turnover at critical points.

Peck also said minutes did not appear to have been taken at one meeting involving discussion about whether the subdivision met the county growth policy, information Peck said at the July 12 meeting he would have wanted to review to inform his decision.

In addition, it came to light at the July 12 meeting that a traffic analysis that should have been done earlier in the application process hadn’t been.

“(But) I’m not going to sit and point fingers at anybody but me,” Peck said. “It’s my responsibility (as a Commissioner) that the process is followed.”

One of Peck’s takeaways to apply to future subdivision planning review is to more fully involve all county departments — maintenance, roads, law enforcement and the like — impacted by such developments. The process invites the departments to weigh in, Peck said, but not to meet as a group to fully discuss a large project’s impacts.

Frustrations aside, Peck said he saw “good news out of this” example.

“As administrators, we need to tighten up some things,” he said.

County Administrator Darren Coldwell said via email Monday morning that the developer now has up to three years to meet all the expectations set forth in the preliminary plat.