Vehicles at Independent Log Company’s parcel on Lebanon Road in Cortez hold timber that has been thinned from nearby forests. The company’s owners are trying to find a way to operate their business at the site, which is near the trailhead to the popular Carpenter Natural Area. Photo by Gail Binkly
Passionate arguments were made on both sides of the issue, with people speaking about everything from firefighting to preserving a beautiful environment, from athletic skills to obnoxious noise, from good jobs to birds and wild animals.
But in the end, the factor the Cortez City Council homed in on was the precedent their decision might set if they rezoned a 10-acre tract of land at one end of the Carpenter Natural Area.
“There are developers who are watching this thing particularly closely,” said Councilmember Matt Keefauver during the council meeting Sept. 26. “They’re saying, ‘If the city made an exception for somebody who bought property as commercial and turned it into industrial, they could do that for us too.’
“That puts us as a city in a bind.”
Councilmember Dennis Spruell agreed. “Rules change when we change property from commercial to industrial,” he said.
The council then voted 7-0 to deny the request for a zoning change made by Anthony Moore and Mary Lancaster, owners of Independent Log Co.
The council left open the possibility that the couple could receive a conditional use permit that would allow them to do most of what they want to do on the property.
The council’s vote came at the end of a public hearing lasting nearly three hours. Thirty-two people came to the podium to speak about the proposed zoning change, 18 of them against it, 14 in favor of it.
The hearing had been scheduled for Aug. 22, but was postponed because Lancaster’s 88-year-old mother became seriously ill.
The proposed zoning change and the uses planned for the parcel in question, 1050 Lebanon Road, generated a groundswell of controversy. The council received about 47 letters or emails about the issue, according to city clerk Linda Smith.
A July 18 hearing before the Planning and Zoning Commission lasted more than three hours, with numerous people commenting, most of them against the proposal. P&Z was unable to reach agreement on a recommendation to the council, with motions to recommend approval or disapproval both failing on 2-2 votes.
The parcel sits along the entrance road to the western end of the Carpenter Trail, which is on the city’s northern edge. The mile-and-a-half long trail crosses approximately 80 acres of land that was donated to the city in the early 1990s and has been left mostly in its natural state.
The parcel sits below a ridge on its south occupied by residential homes.
A former drive-in
The land was once used for a drive-in theater but has sat empty for decades, something that visitors to the natural area have enjoyed. However, it remains private land and was purchased by Lancaster and Moore, who are wildland firefighters, in 2021. They plan to use it to mill lumber, build log homes, store firefighting equipment, and offer a firefighting academy. They were told by city staff that some of the things they planned to do would require a change from commercial to industrial zoning.
Lancaster and Moore already own a half-dozen other parcels in the vicinity, including one directly across Lebanon Road. They said they seized the opportunity to buy this one because there weren’t others suitable for their headquarters available nearby.
Other parcels along that corridor that are within city limits are zoned commercial, while nearby parcels in the unincorporated county have a broad mixture of zoning.
“This has been a tough project for everyone,” said city planner Nancy Dosdall when introducing the proposal to the council on Sept. 26.
She noted that the city’s land-use code says that “the rezoning of land is to be discouraged.” It lists a number of criteria to consider, including whether the original zoning was in error, there has been a change of character in the area, there is a need for the proposed rezoning within the area, or the proposed uses would be compatible with the surrounding area.
At the Sept. 26 hearing, Moore, a professional logger who was born and raised in Cortez, spoke about his background. “In 1989 I was 18 years old. I was the track star of this town,” he said.
Moore said he’d asked his coach to come speak at the hearing, “but this has gotten so political that a lot of people don’t want to get involved. But he said to me, ’Do it like you ran track, with all your heart and soul.’
“Everybody in this room can picture being 18 years old. How many people are going to be successful at their business and take it to the level that I have?” Moore asked. He continued, ”I broke every record in this town, in this county in track, in long distance. I still hold records to this day. What I do today is I go out on fires and I save homes. That same aggressiveness – I’ve won medals.” ‘A resource that is needed’
For him not to be able to have a place to house his logging and firefighting operations, Moore said, “is like asking a policeman to not have a police station. . . We are a resource that is needed in this community.” Lancaster spoke about how they will use logs thinned from surrounding forests that are at risk for wildfire. “Our San Juan Forest is a recipe for disaster,” she said. Since June of this year, 98 semi loads of dead and dying trees have been removed from the forest, she said.
During public comments, Tony Hill, who said he lives in the county and is acquainted with Moore, said, “He will get this done whether it’s the easy way or the hard way.”
Moore reminisced about activities that were done in the Carpenter area before it was donated to the city and designated as a preserve, such as high-school parties, motorcycle-riding, and four-wheeling. “I don’t see a whole lot of tax revenues generated from Carpenter Trail,” he said.
Bob Varcados of the Mancos area said Independent Log Co. has provided jobs, money and taxes for the community and provides a valuable service. “I feel safer that they’re here.”
Dave and Lana Waters, county residents who own 35 acres adjoining the Geer Natural Area, a place with bike trails next to the Carpenter area on its north side, spoke in favor of the ILC development.
Dave Waters said their property is used for industrial uses and that hasn’t affected the wildlife or bothered neighbors. “Most people don’t even know we’re there,” he said.
Lana Waters commented, “Small businesses are vital to the community.”
Several former or current employees of ILC also spoke in favor of the zoning change.
But a number of people voiced opposition to the proposal, saying it would not fit with either the nearby homes or the natural area. Many raised concerns about the noise to be produced by ILC’s Wood Mizer mill and Cord King processor, as well as the storage of wood on site, lights, and traffic.
“I live right above the 10 acres and I do hear the noise [from operations],” said Carol Taylor, who with her husband owns a home on Ridge Drive. She spoke about noise, light pollution, fumes, dust, fire risk from sawdust, and degraded views. “There is no acceptable way to mitigate these issues,” she said.
No part of the 10 acres borders an industrial property, she added.
‘Beautiful system of parks’
John Brzovic, who lives in Cortez near the ILC parcel, praised Cortez’s “extensive, varied, unique, and beautiful system of parks.” He said approval of the zoning change would be solely for the convenience and benefit of ILC, not the community as a whole, and said the entrance to the natural area already “has been damaged beyond recognition.”
Deb Silverman of Cortez echoed those sentiments, saying that according to the city’s comprehensive plan, city officials are supposed to be proactive in the prevention of problems. “ILC has created a number of problems,” she said.
She added that the new zoning would create “minimal benefits for one business at the expense of the common good.”
Former Cortez Mayor Mike Lavey suggested that discussions begin about the city purchasing the property and adding it to the existing natural area, then restoring the wetlands that have been filled in there. “Let’s see what can be done when we put our heads together on this issue,” he said.
Rick Ryan of Cortez said the issue at hand was not “the character of the applicants or what they’ve done for the community.” However, noting that the applicants had undertaken some activities on the property without first getting city approval, he said that to grant them the zoning change or a conditional use permit would mean they “would in effect receive a reward for the wrongdoing.”
Ryan also said a no vote “is not a vote against industrial development, just the city playing by its own rules.”
County resident April Baisan spoke about the economic benefits of wildlife and birds. “Supporting the natural world, rather than degrading it with the fallout from industrial activities, benefits us in many ways,” she said.
The Carpenter Natural Area is home to numerous plant species. Photo by Gail Binkly
Just prior to the pandemic, wildlife-watching generated $76 billion in the U.S. and over $2.4 billion in Colorado, Baisan said.
“Then, in 2020, the first pandemic year, people flocked in greater numbers to the out-of-doors to observe the natural world. . . . The National Audubon Society reports that bird-watching generated $41 billion in the US in 2017. Again, pre-pandemic. No doubt notably more now.”
Susan Kemnetz of Cortez said she had been excited to hear about an industrial company coming in because the jobs are needed, “but I have a big problem with this.”
“The people wanted this [land-use] code,” Kemnetz said. “They wanted that piece of property to be commercial, to be a buffer between the residential and whatever else and the industrial. Please, please don’t change this.”
After the end of the public comments, Moore said his equipment was not as noisy as people said and that he has options such as using quieter exhausts and electric motors. “We can be down there making no noise,” he said.
The council voiced praise for Moore and Lancaster. “You have been awesome through the entire process,” Keefauver said. “You could have been really nasty and that’s definitely not the case.”
Keefauver said he hoped that the six properties they already own might have one site that could fill their needs for their operation.
Spruell said the couple’s characters “certainly are not in question.” However, he continued, “Some day Tony will retire and that property will remain as is. If it’s zoned industrial, the next person may not be as environmentally sound as Mary and Tony are.”
Lancaster responded that their children would likely take over the business when they retire, and said the council should consider other proposed zoning changes for which this might set a precedent “on a case-by-case basis.”
Moore said if this were turned down, “I’m going to reapply again. I’m going to hire an attorney, get to the bottom of this. I’m not quitting.”
Mayor Rachel Medina said the council had to consider whether the property “absolutely needs to be rezoned” and whether the city urgently needed another industrial parcel. Industrial zoning could mean that in the future there could be an animal kennel, an asphalt plant, a high-voltage electrical station or another such industrial operation on the property, she said.
City attorney Patrick Coleman concurred, saying that the new zoning would become permanent unless a future owner applied for a different zoning designation there. “You can’t limit the use to only the applicant’s desired use,” he said.
“If we deny the rezoning that doesn’t mean nothing can happen on this land,” Medina said, adding that she feels a conditional use permit would be more appropriate.
“It’s my land,” Moore said. “I have the right to do what I want to do on that land.”
After the vote to deny the zoning change, the council was then set to consider granting a conditional use permit for the property, which was also on the agenda. Such a permit would allow ILC to do certain things it could not normally do under the established zoning.
However, Coleman said because of the decision to deny the zoning change, the hearing on the conditional use permit should be dropped.
“The application was based on the assumption it would be industrial zoning,” he said. “I don’t believe the staff has reviewed a conditional use permit in the commercial zone for this property.” He said that “to ask the staff to opine on the uses right here and right now would be a difficult ask” because “we’re not sure what the requested uses are.”
Moore and Lancaster then withdrew their application for the conditional use permit, saying they would revise it to apply to the commercial zoning. They will have to submit the new application to Planning and Zoning before it comes before the city council again.
“The process is lengthy, but we want to make it right,” Medina said.
