During a Nov. 10 work session, the Woodland Park Planning Commission began the arduous task of approving a “simplified” Unified Development Code that combines titles 16-18 of the previous land-use codes under a single title.

In a memo, Planning Director Karen Schminke outlined the plan to review several chapters over the next several weeks and to finish reviewing Chapter 1 – General Provisions, and Chapter 2 – Zone Districts at this work session. Commissioners almost made it through the second chapter before adjourning.

Since the commission’s next regular meeting date falls on Thanksgiving Day, that meeting was canceled. Another code-review work session was set for Dec. 8, when commissioners will edit the final section of chapter 2 and move on.

The commissioners discussed having a meeting on Dec. 29 instead of Dec. 21, but made no decision.

Joining the commissioners were Woodland Park Mayor Pro Tem Kellie Case and Board of Adjustment Chairman Lou Ramon and regular board member Valerie Lundy. Commissioner Ken Kennedy joined the group on Zoom.

The commissioners’ aim is to make the code more accessible for laypeople and developers by simplifying the wording, removing wordiness and redundancies and reorganizing codes into a more logical order.

Commissioners agreed that Unified Development Code is a good name for the three combined titles. They asked that definitions be moved up closer to the beginning of the document.

They looked at tables and agreed with Case that people are more likely to look at tables first before reading the narrative.

Ramon criticized the draft document, asking if Jen Gardner of Logan Simpson read it through before presenting it to the commissioners. “It’s too wordy,” he said. “I would be ashamed to present this document to a client even as a first draft.”

While commissioners went through the first two chapters, Gardner made some changes in real time and took notes on other changes. Schminke suggested that certain phrases be vetted by the city’s attorneys.

All references to the “Town of Woodland Park” will be changed to “City of Woodland Park.” In most cases, the word “permitted” will be changed to “allowed.” Hyperlinks will be added to references to titles and sections to increase ease of navigation online and in print. References to previous code changes, except for the most recent change, will be removed for brevity.

Schminke said editing these two chapters gives her insight into how difficult and time-consuming this process will be.

“Cleaning up and streamlining this code is a monumental lift,” she said. “My fantasy was that we would get through this tonight, we’d bring back an amended document and go to public hearing. It’s going to take a while.”

She and the commissioners agreed it’s prudent to save updates to certain codes until after the main document is approved.

Once the draft document is reviewed and edited, it will be made available for public scrutiny. An ordinance will be prepared, and will go through the city’s public hearing process for approval.

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