Summit County, Colorado: Wildlife Habitat Overlay District

• Author: Rebecca L. Kihslinger/James M. Mcelfish Jr.
• Pages: 148-165

chapter nine

Summit County, Colorado:

Wildlife Habitat Overlay District

Many local governments in Colorado have adopted ordinances to protect

wildlife. With express authority in state law to control development and land

use that may threaten wildlife and other natural resources, some of these local

governments have created strategies for protecting wildlife species and habi-

tat. Local governments in Colorado have the “authority to plan for and regulate

the use of land” by “[p]rotecting lands from activities which would cause imme-

diate or foreseeable material danger to signif‌icant wildlife habitat and would

endanger a wildlife species.”1One such local government,Summit County, has

adopted provisions in its Land Use and Development Code (Development

Code) to control development, particularly a wildlife habitat overlay district

that establishes a required development review procedure to protect the wildlife

habitat and species of the county from the “signif‌icant adverse effects of devel-

opment.”2Summit County, located in central Colorado, ranges from 7,900 feet

to over 14,000 feet in elevation, and spans about 619 square miles, 80% of

which is publicly owned.3Today, the county has a year-round population of

approximately 30,000,4which more than triples during the skiing season. The

landscape of the county has a historic mining industry, several ski resorts, and

a diversity of wildlife species and habitats.

In recent decades, residents, local policymakers, and Colorado Division of

Wildlife (CDOW) off‌icials in Summit County have expressed a mounting con-

cern for protecting the open spaces—sage meadows, montane wetlands,

coniferous forests, agricultural lands, and riparian areas—as well as their wild

inhabitants—bald and golden eagles, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, deer, elk,

and bear.5Accordingly, Summit County implemented its f‌irst wildlife policy

in 1980.6This policy established a wildlife review process for proposed devel-

opment, a process that largely relied on wildlife impact maps created by the

CDOW. During public hearings held by the CDOW,citizens “identif‌ied species

of local interest or value.”7Based on the list of species identif‌ied by the pub-

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lic, the CDOW created wildlife impact maps that established areas of “poten-

tial impact on wildlife” that were classif‌ied as potentially high, moderate, or

low.8The CDOW updated these wildlife impact maps in 1988 and 1989, based

on knowledge gained from ongoing research. In 1990, the Summit County Board

of County Commissioners (BOCC) adopted the new maps and requested that

the CDOW provide assistance on how to strengthen the 1980 wildlife policy.9

Under the original wildlife policy, Resolution No. 80-1, implementation

meant referring development proposals to the CDOW District Wildlife Man-

ager, who worked with developers to incorporate revisions and mitigation

efforts into their proposals. Private landowners, according to the policy, were

“not obligated to furnish wildlife habitat for publicly-owned wildlife,”and fur-

thermore, “in the event an application for development is denied, wildlife or

wildlife habitat shall not be used by the County Commissioners as the sole cri-

terion” for the denial of any application.10 In the early 1990s, the county began

to work extensively with other counties, local residents, environmental con-

sultants, and especially the CDOW to develop a more prescriptive approach

that would be carried out in the Development Code, primarily in the form of

the wildlife habitat overlay district, which was adopted in 1994. While the

wildlife habitat overlay district section of the Development Code continued the

procedure for development review established by the 1980 wildlife policy, it

advanced the status of wildlife from the county’s 1980 policy by allowing the

denial of development proposals based solely on the value of wildlife species

and their habitat.

In addition to creating a development review process using the overlay dis-

trict, Summit County also adopted regulations to protect wetlands, incentives

to control development in undeveloped areas, and programs to abate noxious

weeds on private land. In 1998, the county adopted zoning regulations author-

izing the Transfer of Development Rights (TDRs).11

Operation of the Program

Summit County’s Countywide Comprehensive Plan, adopted in 2003, states:

“The reason people live in or visit the County is largely due to the tremendous

natural environment we enjoy. It is our responsibility to treat it with caring

respect.” The plan provides that land use codes and policies should demon-

strate a respect for the landscape that prevents any “irreparable damage.”12 Many

provisions incorporated into the Development Code as well as county-funded

programs have been designed to avoid adverse impact to wildlife while enhanc-

ing wildlife habitat.

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