Just like with the extensive process to create a new land use plan, Park County officials want residents to be involved in the process to revise regulations related to that plan.

In the coming week or so, rural county residents should be receiving postcards in the mail from the county alerting them to the start of updates for the development standards and regulations process.

Since March county officials have been working with Salt Lake-based consulting firm Logan Simpson to help work through the regulation changes, starting with those described as “housekeeping” changes to align county regulations with state law and otherwise catch up with outdated language.

That, Park County Planning Director Joy Hill said, is round one of two rounds of regulations.

“What we really wanted to do was kind of a legal cleanup on certain portions of the document where state statutes changed or we learned the federal laws impact what we're doing,” she said, “but what we found is that some of those federal and state laws are actually going to require us to make some changes to uses, like names or how we permit them or don't permit them, and we're deliberating right now what the best approach is going to be, and do we have to wait until round two to do some of those things, just because we really want to hear from the public in regards to some of the subjects.”

Round two regulations, which won’t be discussed until early 2025 according to the timeline, will concern amendments to the regulations that could have a big impact on the lives and future property aspirations of county residents. Still, Hill said it’s not too early to get public input on the process, as even the first round of amendments will still go through the same public advertisement as the land use plan did before being first approved by the planning and zoning board and then the county commissioners.

“None of this process is behind closed doors. We will be in work sessions with the planning and building commission and the board to work through these proposed changes, but everything will go to the public for review,” Hill said.

And, when the time comes to start preparing for round two, Hill said they’ll put together a survey with specific questions for people to fill out to determine what specific regulations people are for or against. After that, as the process continues, she said it’ll look a lot like the land use planning process, including having community meetings across different planning areas to gather more public input.

“I hope we have a good distribution of people from around the entire county. I really do. I don't want to see just interest groups,” she said. “I want to see people in their neighborhoods. I want to see Joe landowner come out. I want to hear from a nice segment of the population, because really, we've got to look at the overall picture. It's not just necessarily the squeaking wheel that's going to get the grease.”

People can visit engageparkcounty.com for more information.