When commissioners decided not to approve the first round of development standards and regulation amendments at the end of a January meeting filled with people hostile to them, they set off a chain of new meetings between the commissioners and county planning and zoning members to figure out how to solve some of the issues raised. 

On March 25 the two sets of board members gathered together for a yet another lengthy meeting to hash out wording. They had another meeting April 1 and are planning to meet again Tuesday afternoon.

Commission Chair Dossie Overfield said prior to the meeting they’re working through one chapter at a time. There are four chapters and as of the last meeting were working on the second half of the final chapter. 

Many revisions were spurred on by the issues people raised with the initial draft of regulation amendments, from concerns over the very precise definition of adult businesses, to whether certain definitions should be spelled out or simply referred to. 

The hang up for some commissioners has been in going over wording that may be changed anyway in the second round of amendments, where planning staff and consultants have said people can expect many more changes. 

“Isn’t this language going to change in Round 2?” planning and zoning chair Duncan Bonine asked during one discussion on subdivision language. 

“Probably,” came the response. 

Subdivision sizes are one of the big topics up for debate in town hall meetings on phase two of the regs process, which is continuing alongside this nitty gritty revision work on phase one. 

And the first round of amendments is still important, not least for the board members involved who actually have to reference the regulations going forward, along with developers, real estate agents and others who deal with these issues far more than the general public. 

For instance, should state statute wording be just referenced in county regulations or actually included word for word? 

While questions of that nature can be addressed in the first round, board members are waiting until the second round of regulations are drafted before dealing with some issues that may have a larger effect, such as wording on subdivision acreage sizes to be under any type of review. 

All of this is making for a busy time for commissioners, who already meet regularly at least  three times a month (some of the meetings are after commission meetings) and planning and zoning members who meet twice a month on their regular schedule. Overfield said the commissioners have met four or five times with planning and zoning on phase one, with each meeting averaging four hours long. 

And that’s not to mention all of the public input meetings that various board members make a point to attend. 

Those public meetings for phase two of public input collection are ongoing; the next one is 5-7 p.m. Wednesday at the Cody Auditorium. 

“There’s still quite a lot of work to do,” Overfield said.