The Cortez Planning and Zoning Commission approved a project Tuesday night to establish a temporary homeless shelter at of Grace Fellowship Evangelical Free Church, at 24 N. Chestnut St.
The commission also expressed frustration with a request for comments from the Montezuma County Planning and Zoning Department regarding a rezoning application submitted by Candelaria Construction Inc.
Cortez Planning and Zoning commissioners approved a special use permit to Grace Fellowship and The Bridge Emergency Shelter to operate a homeless shelter this winter.
The Bridge previously operated a facility at 601 N. Mildred Road from 2006 to 2018 until the county sold the facility, which the Bridge had occupied for years free of charge. The Bridge’s new building at 735 N. Park St. is under construction and scheduled to open in the summer.
Grace Fellowship will serve as the temporary location for the shelter from Nov. 1 to April 30 while the Bridge building is being built.
The temporary shelter can house 33 people, but Bridge Director Laurie Knutson told commissioners that the previous shelter housed about 43 clients a night during busy winter months and as many as 51 at one time.
“Obviously, we are going to have to turn some people away,” Knutson said. “That’s not part of our history.”
At maximum capacity, the shelter also would be required by the city fire inspector to provide vouchers that give tenants access to off-site showers at facilities such as the Cortez Recreation Center.
“We can discourage anybody that we think might be a difficult person to have at the Rec Center, and not give passes to them, and keep them showering at the shelter,” Knutson said.
Bridge and Grace Fellowship plan to install two showers inside the facility alongside other minor renovations.
Some of The Bridge’s regular tenants have places to live near the shelter, Knutson said, but cannot obtain transportation to get there, a matter Knutson said Bridge was looking into.
The shelter will operate 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. daily and will be monitored to prevent loitering. Clients must agree not to loiter near the property or they will be denied access to the shelter, Knutson said.
City Planner Tracie Hughes told the committee that her office had received no public comments on the matter, and the commission unanimously approved Bridge’s conditional use permit.
On Friday, the Montezuma County Planning and Zoning Commission sent the city zoning commission a request for comments on a rezoning application submitted by Candelaria Construction Inc.
The application requests rezoning the property at 26050 Road L, just outside Cortez city limits, for industrial, residential and commercial use and allow for an expansion of “operational opportunities” by Candelaria Construction.
The rezoning project could impact city water if Candelaria Construction sought an expansion of such facilities. However, Hughes said that no such request has yet been made.
“They would defer to the city to provide water,” Hughes said during Tuesday’s meeting. “The city has not been contacted about that request, so we don’t know what the status is of water (provision) at this time.”
Because the application was submitted on Friday, Cortez Planning and Zoning staff had less than three workdays to review the application and comment – “at the last minute,” said vice chairman Robert Rime.
“If they (the Montezuma County Planning and Zoning Commission) are going to plan — they knew ahead of time that they’d be doing this, so my comment would be, ‘Get it to us in plenty of time, then show up at the meeting to talk about it,’” Rime said.
Chairwoman Rebecca Levy recommended notifying the county board that the application lacked sufficient detail. Hughes said the staff had to commit to other obligations.
The county commission is scheduled to make a final decision on the application on Oct. 11.
cpape@the-journal.com
