The Boulder County Planning Commission will be considering new Land Use Code
amendments to clarify and correct some sections of the Land Use Code
on Wednesday afternoon, July 15, 2009. The meeting will be held in
the Commissioner’s Hearing room on the third floor of the Courthouse
Building, 1325 Pearl Street in Boulder. The exact start time has not
been determined, but the meeting could start as early as 1:30 pm.
Here is what I submitted today as a comment with respect to DC-09-0006:
To Whom This May Concern:
I have two comments:
-
The proposed change to Art.17-300 which describes situations where
building permits are not required should allow small green houses - commonly sold as
catalog kits. They are necessary especially in the mountains due to
our very short growing season. It seems paradoxical that Boulder
County would encourage reducing individual carbon footprints by
purchasing locally grown food but put this barrier to year-round home
food production.
-
Specific to adding Home Events to Zoning District Regulations –
Art. 4-100, I still believe regulation of Home Events is unnecessary
given existing nuisance laws. Section 2. 30-11-101, Colorado Revised
Statutes offers Boulder County a mechanism to shut down nuisance “home
events” without establishing difficult to enforce and possibly
unconstitutional home events regulations. I did not receive a
response from Boulder County after bringing this up last October with
the Commissioners.
---------- Forwarded Message -----------
From: Greg Ching greg.ching@mric.coop
To: Will Toor wtoor@bouldercounty.org, Cindy Domenico
cdomenico@bouldercounty.org, Ben Pearlman bpearlman@bouldercounty.org
Sent: Sat, 18 Oct 2008 17:24:07 -0600
Subject: Home Events L.U.C. no longer needed?
Dear Commissioners:
Last December, I brought to the attention of my State Representative
Claire Levy the need for Counties to have more power for noise
enforcement laws. I explained that the lack of County enforcement power
was a primary motivation for a Boulder County “home events” regulation.
Even though my living room concert series never had any noise,
parking, or traffic complaint there were other outdoor music events in
Boulder County that happened once or twice a year that generated
complaints. Boulder County Land Use was always able to stop these
events but Land Use Director Graham Billingsley said he needed more
enforcement code support. The primary justification for a “home events”
L.U.C. regulation was that the noise nuisance fine was too low for
repeated offenders.
I had a chance to speak to Representative Levy when she spoke to a
neighborhood gathering in my living room today. She thought Counties
had been granted greater powers regarding noise enforcement (not the
sensitivity threshold but fine power). She referred me to some on-line
documentation of bills that passed this last legislative session. The
following is my interpretation only as I am not speaking for Claire.
It appears the Colorado State legislature passed House Bill 08-1065 on
17 March 2008. It went into affect 05 August 2008. From my read of
this law it seems that Counties now have the right to have graduated
fines for repeated offenses. If Boulder County Land Use attorneys agree
it may be worth revisiting the home events regulation - my position has
always been that a specific activity has been regulated whereas it
should be the general activity impact regulated by nuisance laws. It
seems unfair to me that you can have as many private parties (political
or charity fund raisers, for example) as desired but the same impact
“home event” requires additional regulation. While I can live with the
newly adopted “home events” regulations I believe it sets a terrible
government intrusion precedence - unless it simply amended to indicate
activity acceptance into the L.U.C. subject to general nuisance laws.
It is my belief that Boulder County may someday face a challenge to this
regulation based upon Constitutional concerns. (Relax, it won’t be me
as I can’t afford the legal fees.)
Here’s the digest:
http://www.state.co.us/gov_dir/leg_dir/olls/digest2008a/GOVERNMENTCOUNTY.htm#08-1065
APPROVED by Governor April 1, 2008
EFFECTIVE April 1, 2008
H.B. 08-1065 Ordinance enforcement - county noise abatement actions -
ordinance violation penalties - application of ordinances in designated
areas. Authorizes a county, with specified exceptions, to bring a civil
action to abate violations of the state noise abatement statute.
Authorizes a county to adopt penalty assessment procedures and graduated
fine schedules for specified violations.
Authorizes a board of county commissioners to designate areas in the
unincorporated territory of a county exclusively within which an
ordinance applies. Requires the board to set a rational basis for the
designation and hold a public hearing prior to making the designation.
APPROVED by Governor March 17, 2008
EFFECTIVE August 5, 2008
NOTE: This act was passed without a safety clause. For further
explanation concerning the effective date, see page vi of this digest.
Here’s the specific part of H.B. 08-1065 that I believe gives Counties
new authority.
http://www.state.co.us/gov_dir/leg_dir/olls/sl2008a/sl_28.htm
SECTION 2. 30-11-101, Colorado Revised Statutes, is amended BY THE
ADDITION OF A NEW SUBSECTION to read:
30-11-101. Powers of counties. (2) Counties have the authority to
adopt and enforce ordinances and resolutions regarding health, safety,
and welfare issues as otherwise prescribed by law. In addition to any
other enforcement or collection method authorized by law, if a county
passes an ordinance or resolution of which a violation would be a class
2 petty offense, the county may elect to apply the penalty assessment
procedure set forth in section 16-2-201, C.R.S., and may adopt a
graduated fine schedule for multiple offenses. If a specified offense
would be an unclassified misdemeanor, a county may elect to downgrade
the offense to a class 2 petty offense and apply the penalty assessment
procedure under circumstances deemed appropriate and prescribed by the
county in an ordinance or resolution.
I respectfully request that Boulder County evaluate the impact of H.B.
08-1065 and revise the current Boulder County nuisance regulations
regarding graduated noise fines. Once that County noise ordinances have
more teeth, I would like the County to consider modifying or dropping
the “home events” regulation from the L.U.C. as the impact is no greater
than any other private event governed by nuisance laws. I would be fine
with legal protection via inclusion in the list of acceptable zoning
activities but I do not believe any other restriction should apply since
general nuisance laws cover all private activities.
Thank you for your consideration.
Best regards,
greg
Greg Ching
P.O. Box 372
Nederland, CO 8046
------- End of Forwarded Message -------
Respectfully,
greg
Greg Ching
Aspen Meadows House Concerts
www.aspenmeadowshc.org
–
gregmching@gmail.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/gregmching
If it’s cold you can sip hot chocolate.