Pearce: Dangers in the BOCC overriding P&Z decisions

The BOCC approved the airport runway expansion even though the P&Z Commission denied it. This is a dangerous precedent.

Pitkin County created the caucuses, asked residents to spend thousands of hours developing Master Plans and adopted those plans as official policy. Then the BOCC treats the plans as obstacles when they conflict with desired outcomes. When the BOCC overrides findings of incompatibility, it sends a message: public participation only matters when it aligns with the Board’s agenda. 

Commissioners hold extraordinary power with little personal consequence. They can approve projects that permanently alter communities and weaken long-standing protections, yet they do not bear the long-term impacts that residents must live with for decades. The political fallout is short-lived; the damage to the community is not, this is especially true when commissioners are termed out or run unopposed after such decisions. 

When the Board disregards a Master Plan, it weakens the next one. Every exception becomes a precedent. Every override tells future applicants that community plans are negotiable. Over time, the planning process becomes less about following established policy and more about finding a way around it. 

The real danger is that residents eventually conclude the process is rigged — that the outcome is predetermined and public input is treated as a formality. Once that trust is lost, it is extraordinarily difficult to rebuild. 

If the BOCC routinely sets aside the plans that Pitkin County created, master plans become advisory documents and the caucus system becomes an exercise in managing public expectations rather than honoring community direction. 

The legacy of such decisions will not be a runway or commercial development. It will be the precedent that the rules apply only until elected officials decide otherwise. That is a dangerous message for any government to send.

Nancy Pearce, Woody Creek Caucus

Aspen