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Thursd; No LUR.resolution yet Another hearing today are strongly considering changing to something that meets EPA re- quirements," said Field. Comm;ssioner Jim Starr was not convinced, however. He argued the amendment did nothing to account far areas of the -county with greater density and a higher potential for air qualiry problems. "My problem is that,this amend- ment makes no distinction about where these things are located," he said. "Tome, if we allow two wood burning stoves and a fireplace in every house in the counry, we are going to have dirry air. It is much easier to solve the problem before it eidsts than after it has started." The debate has centered on whether fireplaces will be used often enough to pose a serious threat to air quality. Commissioner Perry Anderson said, "Anybody who puu in two wood buming stoves and an open fireplaice is going to have to quit their job and go cut wood full time. Most of the particulates come from wood stoves that are choked down, not from open fireplaces that suck up all that air and are buming hot." Another amendment that has divided citizens and coinmissioners is one that proposes to remove all county planning department review of houses over 10,000 sq. ft. Currendy, houses over 5,000 sq. ft. must go through a"major unpact" review process that can take welt over a year to complete. Field proposed adoption of an amendment that would remove counry review of houses more than 9,000 sq. ft., or 12,500 sq. ft. in- cluding outbuildings. Above that, he suggested the house go through a "minor impact" review, which could take from four to eight months. He further proposed that the new reguladon assess a fee based on the number of sq. ft. above 5,000 to be used to fund affordable housing projects in the county. He estimat- ed such a fee could gerierate as much $50,000 per year. At present, the largest house in Gunnison County has a living space of 8,900 sq. ft. Starr said he supported the idea of a fee and of lowering the impact classification from major to minor, but could not agree to raise the size "threshold" to 9,000 sq. ft. "That would mean that every house built in the county so far would have been built with no county review whatsoever," he said. "We have to think about the neigh- bors' rights." On the subject of property rights, Anderson said, "The properry owner has had the right to build a house here in Gunnison County as long as they can get through the public dunking process. Do we need a right to live here policy? A right to make a living here policy?" The commissioners will meet again this Thursday at 11 a.m. in the Crested Butte Town Hall to con- tinue to debate and possibly take action on any or all of the five amendmerits before them at this time. The planning commission is still considering its recommenda- tions on the other nine. _ . _. i m Alan Wartes The Gunnison County Comxnis- sioners picked up where the public left off in a work session last Wednesday devoted to a laundry list of proposed changes to the Land Use Resolution. Several controver- sial amendments, which have sharply divided members of the communiry, produced strong dis- agreement among commissioners as well. The only action the board took was to approve an uncontested amendment that would change the way mobile home parks are defined to allow residents to own the land under their home. Discussion of other proposals did not result in consensus. The changes were brought before the board by a local group called Citizens for Economic Revitaliza- tion (CFER). The group, mostly made up of inembers of the devel- opment community, believes the LUR is unnecessarily restrictive, harming economic development and infringing on private properry rights. They have proposed 15 separate amendments they feel would stim- ulate growth. Only four were dis- cussed last week. Among those were two that have drawn considerable fire from some citizens of the counry. The first would overturn the current coun- tywide prohibition on non-EPA ap- proved fireplaces in new buildings. CFER spokespersons claim the reg- ulation acts to block some new con- struction of homes in the county. Those opposed argue the amend- ment would lead to a degradation of air qualiry similar to what Crest- ed Butte experienced years ago be- fore enacting its own fireplace ban. Commissioner Fred Field opened the discussion last week by proposing the county adopt the amendment and allow firepla,,es, hnt al.cn rharnP a1?1 00() fPP oarh