Montezuma County commissioners on Tuesday said they’d take a closer look at addressing trash, burning and visual blight on private property. One commissioner characterized the issue as widespread and said it merits further discussion.
During a regular meeting, County Attorney Stephen Tarnowski told the commission that adopting any new blight ordinance would require public hearings and likely broader changes to the county’s comprehensive land-use plan, which dates to the mid-1990s.
Commissioner Jim Candelaria said concern over a specific property was raised during a town hall event Monday evening. Candelaria said the administration should do more to move the process forward, “because we are dealing with this constantly within the entire county, so it may be a little bit bigger conversation.”
“A lot of what was discussed last night was how do we establish an ordinance to take care of some of the blight,” Candelaria said. “We’ve had a lot of calls. Some of these, I mean the environmental we can take care of with Public Health, some of it is just absolutely the blight and the trash.”
Tarnowski said visual blight was considered when the county adopted its comprehensive land-use plan decades ago, but officials at that time moved away from strict regulatory enforcement, favoring voluntary compliance or more informal resolution between neighbors.
“My recommendation would be to do so either through an addendum to the comprehensive land-use plan or an amendment to really look at what’s the big-picture plan here for the county,” he said.
Revisiting that decision, Tarnowski said, requires a transparent public process. He said any solution, ordinance or otherwise, should involve community feedback and consider how blight issues align with current land-use policies.
Candelaria pointed out that the county already has land-use provisions addressing issues such as trash burning and debris leaving a site, but asked what tools exist to enforce them now.
Tarnowski said the county’s biggest obstacle is staffing. The planning department has just two employees whose primary responsibilities involve permits, rezoning and development review — not code enforcement.
“Practically, a difficulty for the county is that we don’t have a dedicated staff person who is working on these issues,” Tarnowski said. “When they come to the county’s attention, they end up in the lap of the planning department or also myself, and we both have a broad set of responsibilities.”
Candelaria said the county is attempting to address the most serious violations first.
“There are violations right now with the land-use code and we know that and we are trying to resolve the worst of the worst before they get any worse,” he said. “So we will move that forward and keep working on it.”
Vicki Shaffer, the county’s public information officer, said majority of complaints involve trash on residential properties, including household waste, abandoned cars, tires, among other things.
“The issue is spread across the county and is not limited to rural or residential areas,” she said.
Later in the meeting, commissioners took up a public hearing involving an allegedly unpermitted and noncompliant on-site wastewater treatment system at a rural property.
Environmental Health Specialist Linda Hill told commissioners her department has no septic permit on file for the parcel and cited multiple complaints alleging wastewater discharge on the ground, as well as an acrid smell emanating from the property.
“When I get a complaint like that I go into my database, put in the address and look for a septic system. If I don’t find it, we have an old database that I also confirm there. So again, I confirmed, I did not have a septic system on file with this parcel,” Hill said.
Hill said she sent letters to the property owner in late October and December requesting a response, followed by a notice earlier this month requiring him to appear before the board.
The property owner told commissioners he installed a septic system more than six years ago but was unaware of permit and state regulation requirements at the time. He cited personal and financial hardships that he said prevented him from responding sooner.
“I didn’t know about all these rules,” the property owner said. “I did not even know what I was required, I just learned the hard way that I wasn’t supposed to be doing it.”
The system includes a 500-gallon tank and has reportedly functioned without issue, he added, emphasizing that neighbors are located hundreds of feet away.
Hill said she has not yet inspected the site and agreed to conduct an inspection this week. The property, about 20 miles outside town limits, has renters, a single-wide camper and several RVs.
Candelaria emphasized that compliance with county and state health regulations is required, regardless of how long the system has been in place.
“Ignorance is not an excuse, sir, I am sorry,” Candelaria said. “I don’t care if you have been there 10 years, there’s proper things that we have to do within this county for the health, safety and welfare.”
Hill said she will report her findings to the commission at the 9:30 a.m. hearing next Tuesday, at which point commissioners could decide to consider enforcement actions, including a cease-and-desist order or imposing fines.
The property owner agreed to allow the inspection and said he wants to work with the county toward compliance.
Tarnowski recommended briefly continuing the hearing for a later date to allow remedies in the meantime, but Candelaria said commissioners were not inclined to delay it.
“Again from what we heard last night, I don’t want to kick this can down the road. This can’s been kicked down the road long enough, and I am not willing to just go another month,” Candelaria said.
