Park County is close to beginning work on the second, and much more impactful, round of amendments to its planning and zoning regulations.

The first round of amendments to the Park County Development Standards and Regulations is set to be considered by the county commissioners in January after being recommended for approval Nov. 20 by the Planning and Zoning Commission.

The commissioners will hold a special meeting to conduct a public hearing Monday, Jan. 27, at 1:15 p.m., in the Cody Library’s Grizzly Room.

The next day, work on the second round of regulations begins.

County planning and zoning will hold all-day open houses Jan. 28 at the Cody Auditorium and Jan. 29 at Heart Mountain Hall in the Park County Fairgrounds.

Park County Planning and Zoning Executive Director Joy Hill said that, like with the land use plan process, staff will present at three different times throughout the day on how regulations could be amended to align with the new land use plan.

“That worked really well during the land use plan,” Hill said, adding “We had good input, good attendance and people know what to expect.”

The amendments to the regulations are being spurred on by the spring passage of the new Park County Land Use Plan. That plan includes recommendations on whether certain county areas should be zoned for more or less density than they are now, a revised agriculture overlay map and a new big game overlay, among other items.

That plan actually had to go through part of the process the first round of regulations are going through twice. The plan was recommended for approval by planning and zoning but turned down by commissioners after a public hearting in which many people expressed concerns the plan didn't do enough to protect private property rights. The commissioners then met with planning and zoning to hash out a revised plan, which was again recommended for approval by planning and zoning and then, approved by county commissioners.

The second round of regulations is expected to draw some passionate responses as well, as, Hill said, this is when people get to determine issues like where should wind turbines be allowed on private land in the county.

“Round two is going to be the nitty gritty,” she said.

After the open houses the county will release a month-long online questionnaire for people to fill out, and then in March will hold a series of meetings with people in each planning area to address issues that were brought up at the open houses and via the questionnaire.

“We expect some pushback — there’s going to be zone changes, I’m sure, although I don’t know where,” Hill said.

As for the first round of regulations, the commission held a public hearing to consider the proposed amendments and recommended approval with conditions for the correction of minor typographical errors throughout the document and adjustment of the language relating to variances to reflect slightly less restrictions than were originally proposed. An updated draft is now available for review and comment at plan.konveio.com/park-county-dsr-update-bcc-adoption-draft.

This first round of proposed updates to the DSR involves, generally, formatting and administrative changes. No changes to the official zoning map are included.