Pitkin County takes step towards rezoning 85% of county to protect against land sales 

Pitkin County is poised to rezone more than 500,000 acres of public lands in the county to prevent development in the event of land sales. Public lands make up about 85% of the county. 

The rezoning was approved on first reading at the July 23 Pitkin County Board of County Commissioners regular session in a 4-0 vote.

The BOCC was driven to take action on this in response to efforts earlier this year to include provisions to sell vast swathes of federal lands in the “Big Beautiful Bill” that was passed July 4. 

The federal land sales were ultimately struck off the bill, but commissioners still moved forward with the effort to safeguard the lands from “inappropriate uses,” like residential construction. 

“We’ve been talking a lot about Vision 2050,” said Wolff at the Wednesday regular session. “One of the guiding values of Vision 2050 is rural preservation. Those public lands are one of the things that’s special about Pitkin County. So this proposed rezoning provides another layer of protection on those.”

The land is being rezoned from one of several different zoning schemes that cover Pitkin County public lands, including “Rural and Remote,” “Agricultural/Residential,” and others. All of the various zoning types within Pitkin County will be rezoned to “Resource Government” zoning, which prohibits residential development. 

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There are some exceptions, however. Areas in Pitkin County zoned as SKI-REC, those owned by the Colorado Department of Transportation, or by other entities besides the federal and state government are excluded from the rezoning. SKI-REC zoning covers lands intended for recreation skiing.

Resource Government zoning, or RS-G, was created in 2006 and is intended to prevent the “inappropriate” development of lands currently owned by the federal, state, or local governments in the event they are sold. It allows only for limited intensity resource uses on the RS-G zoned areas. 

“It doesn’t fully prevent development, but it makes it clear that it’s zoned for resource-type use,” Wolff told The Aspen Times in an interview. “There is no residential use under the RS-G zone district. It means that if it were sold to somebody looking to do residential development, that would not be permitted. They would have to go through a rezoning process, as well.”

According to Wolff, RS-G zoning does allow for grazing and agricultural allotments through a federal permit. It would also allow for some level of timber extraction, though that would require both a federal permit and a permit with the county. 

Rezoning is not just the jurisdiction of the BOCC — the Planning and Zoning committee also needs to sign off on the action. Pitkin County Planning and Zoning met on July 15 and affirmed the rezoning effort in a 5-0 vote. 

The second reading for this resolution is scheduled for Aug. 13.