Today (Tuesday) begins what could very well be the final stretch of time the county will accept comment — both via email and in person — regarding the county’s development standards and regulations before commissioners hold a public hearing Dec. 1, after which they could decide to approve a final draft. 

The hearing will be 6 p.m. at the Cody Library’s Grizzly Room, and I encourage attendance by anyone who has concerns or just has an interest in the process. Previous public hearings on the new land use plan and the first phase of the DSR have included dozens of comments and have led to commissioners making changes. 

To their credit, commissioners have made many changes throughout this process to address concerns, and while they haven’t satisfied everybody, from what I’ve heard and seen they’ve put in quite the effort. 

There’s a lot that can be said about this process — it’s been long and costly — but it can’t be said the county hasn’t placed importance on public input. 

Through the process to install a new land use plan and then to approve first phase 1 of the DSR, and now years later, to get to this point with phase 2 has involved dozens of in-person public meetings all over the county and numerous public hearings at the planning and zoning and commissioners level. 

There have also been multiple ways to comment online, take a survey, send an email or a letter. 

So, if you have had any interest in this process at all and have wanted to comment, there have been opportunities, and there’s another one now. 

These standards and regulations, including revised zoning maps and use tables governing what can and can’t be done on private properties in all areas of the county outside of public land, impact many thousands of households — basically everyone living outside of city limits. 

In Clark, for instance, which has had some of the highest level of involvement, proposed changes pushed by many residents would do more to restrict small lot subdivisions in this rural corner of the county to maintain the larger lot sizes most seem to prefer. 

In the large swathe of land between Powell and Cody, there have likewise been changes proposed to eliminate zoning allowing lots as small as 1 acre, which many have said infrastructure and the water table simply can’t support, in favor of a zoning with 5 acre lot size average minimums for subdivisions. 

There are also some new protections for ag properties, responses to an influx of new residents, some of whom move next to a farm and hadn’t expected the smell of manure wafting over. 

These codify, as the previous regulations largely had as well, all of the uses allowed in rural areas. 

Hopefully as more people move in, they can look at regulations and know just what they’re getting themselves in for by moving to rural Park County.