County looks to include towns in land use planning

Crook County Commissioners Fred Devish and Kelly Dennis, with their hired consultant, Jayna Watson, spoke to the assemblage at Friday's Pine Haven Council workshop regarding the next steps of their efforts to better manage growth within county limits.

The commissioners allowed their consultant to take the lead in the conversation.

Watson was first introduced to town and county residents in January as she conducted opinion polls and disseminated information about the possible need for further regulation to protect aspects of the county.

"Crook County is in a very unique position, very attractive environmentally and there has just been a lot of change and growth is coming I think to rural and probably urban parts of the county as well," Watson said.

She and the commissioners are now visiting the municipalities with the outline of the Crook County Comprehensive Land Use Plan, which is to be updated.

"The comprehensive plan is the big picture document, it talks about our preferred land uses, where we want to grow, where we want to preserve agriculture, where we may want to encourage some spin-off recreation activities related to the Tower, Keyhole, etc.," she said.

"The comprehensive plan doesn't regulate anything, but it's the community consensus, the long term vision...How will we look, how will we grow."

As the county approaches this step, they are working within state law. According to the consultant, "The statute does grant our efforts toward coordination with the towns and incorporated communities. In the stature, it talks about the need to include those town plans into the county plan."

She advocated this choice, saying, "It makes sense that the towns will be incorporated [into the planning] because this is where all the infrastructure is – better roads [as well as] water and sewer, so there is going to be a concentrated effort of growth."

Watson assured the council members of the commissioners' attention to their concerns.

"By including you, we would look at your existing and future land use preferences...What are some of the infrastructure policies that you have?" she said.

"What are your major road networks and probably, what's growing more and more is that people want to get out, they want non-motorized pass system and that's beyond just sidewalks. So that's an important part, too."

She continued, "Those are sort of the core pieces of the comprehensive plan because it doesn't just deal with land use, it goes into these other really big and somewhat complex topics that towns and cities have to deal with their transportation, their water, their sewer."

"One of the concerns we had," said the consultant, "is that, as we're working outside of the city limits and the county refines its policies, we talk about land use and rural subdivisions, they want to direct growth more toward the municipalities and we need your input... That's why what's happening in the county as an incorporated part of the plan dovetails with what you want."

Watson acknowledged the plan is still in its infancy.

"We don't have any idea what it costs, we figured that would be best as a conversation held individually with each city to what their needs are. Everyone may have a different agenda, a different need, so we could allocate the cost based on your population and percentage related to your overall county population, which, according to census, right now, is 7181, so Pine Haven has seven percent of the county's population," Watson said.

"As we put together a scope of work...the cost of the plan [also] depends on the issues you want to see addressed. There may be something unique to you that may not apply in Moorcroft or Sundance."

Dennis agreed with the last statement, stating, "The cultural differences are huge in this county and even more in the municipalities."

Mayor Karla Brandenburg spoke to the group: "We're in a unique situation in the county. We bring in a lot of tourists and we also have a huge amount of building going just outside our city limits."

Answering the mayor's question of plan management, Watson stated the commissioners "envision a consultant firm similar to the setup Spearfish, SD is currently using to manage their comprehensive plan. There are a number of firms that "specialize in helping communities of all sizes walk through their issues, identify their needs."

The town has approximately 45 days to decide about its involvement in the plan.