The long-awaited code review is ready for consideration by the Woodland Park Planning Commission. An Oct. 27 work session was the first of several meetings planned to go over the review.

Members of City Council and the board of adjustment were in the audience and on Zoom.

The update was presented by Planning Director Karen Schminke and Jennifer Gardner, senior associate of Community Planning and Code at Logan Simpson, the company that also facilitated the Envision Woodland Park 2030 Comprehensive Plan.

The review suggests consolidating Titles 16, 17 and 18 — mobile home, zoning and subdivision codes — into one section with seven chapters.

Schminke said, only half joking, that “you know it’s time to update your codes when the oldest code is older than the oldest commissioner.”

“One of the planners said processing portions of the code is like a scavenger hunt,” she said. “You also need to update the code when applicants call up asking for interpretations, when requests for variances increase, when state and federal laws change, when you update your comp plan, and when the code is silent on today’s structures, such as wind towers, tiny houses, short-term rentals and cryptocurrency mining.”

Gardner went through each chapter of the proposed reorganization.

“We’ve restructured the titles for easier use,” she said. “We’ve created new land-use tables, created new graphics and updated the sign code to conform with new federal regulations.”

Commissioner Carrol Harvey said changing the sign code makes her nervous, adding that the last time these codes were updated, it took the commissioners about 18 months.

“We didn’t change much about the sign codes, we just made them comply with new regulations,” Gardner said. “The new laws don’t allow cities to regulate sign content — they can only regulate time, place and manner of signs.”

“Consolidation brings us up to date,” Harvey said. “But we’re not in the business of completely changing our code.”

“It’s not useful got set lots and lots of new policies,” Commissioner Lee Brown said. “We need to create a wish list that we can get to later.”

Commissioner Larry Larsen agreed. Some parts of the code should be listed as “not yet,” he said.

The commissioners will receive a digital copy of the new codes within a few days and hard copies early in the next week. There will be another work session Nov. 10 and, perhaps, others to follow.

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