Planning commission argues bylaws and ordinances

Changes in bylaws were argued at Saratoga’s Planning Commision Jan. 14 for more than one-and-one-half hours.

The board reviewed bylaws from town planning commissions in Cheyenne and Wright, and a planning commission in California in order to compile ideas for their own bylaws.

The current bylaws are two pages long and were adopted “years ago” according to the chairman of the Saratoga Planning Commission Rory Grubb. The town planning commission did not come to an agreement while examining the other bylaws. After a long discussion, the planning commission chose to review the bylaws from the various towns in detail and return with a list of preferences.

“Once we write all this up, we are going through this two or three more times,” Rory Grubb said.

During the second half of the meeting tempers flared as the the board started to discuss a discrepancy between two ordinances: 18.03.40 and 18.72.010.

18.72.010 section G states that “any variance granted by the town council pursuant to the provisions of this section shall be construed to be a nonconforming use.” Contrasting to that ordinance, 18.72.010 says “uses granted as the result of approved special use permits or variances pursuant to Chapters 18.69 and 18.72 shall be deemed conforming uses.” Grubb said that this was brought to his attention by Saratoga Town Engineer Chuck Bartlett and that the two ordinances needed to be “cleared up”.

However, board members could not come to an agreement on how to reword the ordinances. This consequently led to an emotionally-fueled debate between nearly all of the board members.

At which point, Chairman Rory Grubb threatened to stop the meeting.

“I’m going to close the meeting if we are not civil,” Grubb said.

The board agreed to come back to the conflicting ordinances at a later time.

“Either way, we have two conflicting ordinances that need to be addressed,” Grubb said.

The next meeting will be held 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 11 at Saratoga Town Hall.