A deluge of rain in Cortez on Aug. 24 floods the area near the trailhead of the Carpenter Natural Area. An industrial use has been proposed for the 10-acre tract seen here from the top of a ridge. Courtesy photo
The Cortez City Council in August postponed making a decision about a controversial proposal for land adjoining the Carpenter Natural Area.
On the evening of Aug. 22, when a public hearing had been set on proposals for a change of zoning and conditional use permit for a 10-acre parcel at the natural area’s west end, the council instead voted unanimously to move the hearing to Tuesday, Sept. 26.
The delay was sought because of an illness in the family of Mary Lancaster, one of the applicants, as well as the fact that her husband, Anthony Moore, had been called out of town.
“We haven’t had the chance to hear from the applicant,” said Councilor Matt Keefauver at the meeting, adding that the point of a public hearing is to hear from both sides.
The postponement came just a few days after opponents of the project brought forth records of a 1984 District Court decision that they believe bolsters their arguments against the zoning change.
Moore and Lancaster, owners of Independent Log Company, want to use the parcel at 1050 Lebanon Road for milling lumber to produce log homes, storing firefighting equipment, and possibly having a wildland firefighting training facility. The project would require changing the zoning from its current designation as commercial to industrial.
A number of people have voiced concerns about how the project would affect the natural area and the homes sitting atop a hill adjoining the parcel. Numerous people spoke against the rezoning at a July 18 hearing by the Planning and Zoning Commission, and that group did not recommend approval. People have also written letters to the editor to local newspapers and sent emails to the City Council.
Prior to the council’s vote to postpone the hearing, Mayor Rachel Medina took the unusual step of reading a statement in which she said she was concerned about “the disrespect that’s been exhibited to our hard-working staff pertaining to certain land-use issues.”
“Our staff members have the duty and obligation to bring forward land-use applications, make recommendations, and shepherd applications through the system,” Medina said. “When staff makes recommendations, they only pertain whether in their estimation the applicants have been able to meet the criteria set forth in our land-use code. . . .We as the City Council are the decision-makers, not our staff members.”
Medina also said people should no longer send emails regarding any matters involving public hearings directly to council members, whose email addresses are listed on the city’s website.
“Although we always like to collaborate and interact with our community members, sending your opinions directly to council members regarding quasi-judicial land-use issues only serves to put us into an awkward position, since we are only able to consider information provided to us through the public-hearing process,” Medina said.
“Therefore, in the future we request that your opinions and other information you wish to have considered regarding quasi-judicial l land-use issues be sent directly to the clerk’s office,” she said, explaining that those items will then be provided to the council in their packets.
“I appreciate the community’s engagement,” she said. “I want to make sure we are having respect from every angle. We take every decision we make seriously.”
The Independent Log applicants say they bought that parcel in 2021 because it is near other properties they own and there were not many parcels available that would suit their purposes.
They say the small wood mill and Cord King processor they would be using to produce logs for log-home construction aren’t excessively noisy and would be comparable to a lawnmower running. They also say their operation would provide a significant service to the area because it will help use timber thinned from overcrowded forests.
But opponents say the business would be incompatible with the natural area, scar ing off wildlife, possibly contaminating a wetland area, and creating something that would be jarring visually at the trailhead to the natural area. They say it would produce noise and dust affecting the homes on the nearby ridge. They also worry about the fact that if the zoning is changed to industrial, it will carry over if the land is sold to new owners, and those new owners could launch more-objectionable industrial uses on the same property.
The applicants, however, say critics have become too used to the fact that the land — formerly the site of a drive-in theater — has sat empty for years and years.
In August, the opponents ferreted out a 1984 District Court case regarding the Cortez Board of Adjustment and Appeals’ decision in 1983 to revoke a building permit for an industrial use near the area where the Independent Log project is currently proposed.
In late 1982, a company called Mountain Gravel and Construction had been granted a building permit for an asphalt hot-mix plant on land on Lebanon Road where the gym Body by Design now sits.
Neighbors Dr. David Herrick and Thomas Ervin appealed that permit to the city’s Board of Adjustment and Appeals, citing concerns about noise, dust, odors, light, and visual impacts upon nearby residents. In January 1983, the city told Mountain Gravel to stop work at that location, according to the “Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Final Order” issued by the District Court judge in 1984.
In March 1983, following an administrative hearing, the Board of Adjustment and Appeals (BOAA) voted 4-0 to tell the city to revoke the building permit. According to the BOAA’s finding of fact, the city staff had been in error in approving the building permit for a hot-mix plant in what was called the “IM Zone” in the city.
“This conclusion is based upon the fact that a hot-mix plant is a high intensity use and, in turn, not compatible with the intent of zoning in the IM Zone in Cortez,” said the Board of Adjustment and Appeals’ document.
“(T)he City cannot abdicate its responsibility to surrounding users to protect and preserve their rights/welfare,” the board’s document also stated. “The subjective judgment of a City staff official lacking in specific expertise, as it relates in this case to the effects of a hot-mix plant, to administer the limiting qualifiers listed in . . . the Zoning Ordinance for the City of Cortez is insufficient to guarantee that this responsibility is being met.”
The document said the “intent also in Cortez Zoning Ordinance provisions is to make it incumbent upon applicants for building permits and potential land users to prove that the reasonable interests of existing and surrounding land users will not be jeopardized.”
The BOAA’s document also stated, “unusual topography in this specific case does cause an adverse visual impact upon surrounding land users.”
The board said Mountain Gravel could continue building a contractor’s yard, but not the hot-mix plant.
Mountain Gravel then filed suit against the city. A District Court judge ruled in favor of the BOAA. Mountain Gravel sued again, saying its constitutional rights had been unlawfully taken, but a second judge also ruled in favor of the city.
The Carpenter Natural Area had not even been created in the 1980s — it was designed in 1993 — and the hot-mix plant was not as close to city homes as the parcel now owned by Independent Log is.
Opponents of the Industrial Log proposal believe the 1984 court decision established a precedent for rejecting industrial applications that are close to city residences.
The Cortez City Council is now set to take up the matter at its regular meeting on Sept. 26.
