Board of County Commissioners Business Meeting - public_hearing

All right, everyone, if we could please come to order. Welcome to the Board of County Commissioners Land Use Meeting and Public Hearing. It is Tuesday, August 25th, 2026. We are running a little late from our business meeting. If you all please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Turning to the county attorney for certification of the agenda.

Yes, sir. The county attorney's office has reviewed the item on the agenda. Appropriate posting has been made, and you have jurisdiction over this matter.

Thank you, Counselor. Commissioners, do you have any disclosures for items on this agenda today?

I have none, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Nope. Very good. I have none either. Thank you, gentlemen. This is the portion of our agenda we usually devote to a land use meeting. We do not have any land use items on today's agenda, so we'll go right into the public hearing agenda. First item is a vacation of Pine View Circle Road Vacation, Project Files SB2026-017. Eric Pavlenik, Chief Planner, Department of Community Development for Staff.

Good afternoon commissioners. Eric Pavlenek representing Community Development. The item for you is a road vacation request. The product number is SB 2026-017. Rolf Berkland is here this afternoon as the co-applicant. The request is to vacate all of Pine View Circle right away in Spruce Mountain Estates. Two of the abutting landowners would like to acquire ownership of the roadway segments. The intent of Section 2-704B is to provide a review and approval process for the various types of public road vacation requests, which is noted on the slide. The road vacation process begins with the submittal of an application following a review period by referral agencies and courtesy notices to abutting landowners. Public notice is given for public hearings before the Planning Commission and Board of County Commissioners. No adjacent property owners or other members of the public have provided comments on this application. Larkspur Fire Protection District had no objection to the request. Public Works Engineering had no objection as all lots within the subdivision now have access. The Planning Commission heard the proposal at a public hearing on August 17th, 2026 and unanimously recommended approval by vote of eight to zero. No members of the public spoke regarding the request. No questions were asked by the Planning Commission. Spruce Mountain Estates located in the West Palm Creek sub area of the non-urban area of the CMP. The red star indicates the approximate location of the subdivision in the southern end of the county. The subdivision is zoned estate residential. This is an aerial view showing the surrounding lots and road network. As background, Pine View Circle was created with the original plat in 1966. The cul-de-sac was never constructed as a public road. Seven lots directly above this cul-de-sac but take access from other roads and easements. This is the road vacation exhibit. The road is approximately one acre and it's approximately 870 feet long by 50 feet wide. In addition, the vacation resolution reserves a utility easement for the continued use of existing utility at the date of the vacation. The vacation resolution will also reserve an access easement for the benefit of Lot 8 Spruce Mountain Estates Filing 1 to Pine View Road. The Lot 8 property owners James and Linda Swan requested access from their lot to Pine View Road. This exhibit details the proposed vesting of the right-of-way between the two property owners. Before you, the approval standards applicable to road vacation requests, which are described within the staff report. Staff has evaluated the road vacation request in accordance with Part 7B of the subdivision. Should the board find that approval standards for the road vacation request are met, the following proposed conditions should be considered for inclusion in the motion. Condition number one, prior to recordation of the road vacation resolution, all minor technical corrections shall be made to the satisfaction of Douglas County. And condition number two, all commitments and promises made by the applicant or the applicant's representative during the public hearing and agreed to in writing and included in the public record have been relied upon the Board of County Commissioners in approving the application. Therefore, such approval is conditioned upon the applicant's full satisfaction of all such commitments and promises. Section 2-709 sets forth the parameters for the board's determination on the road vacation request, which is noted on the slide. This concludes my presentation. I'm available for any questions at this time. Ralph Berkland is here as a co-applicant. The applicant does not have a presentation, but can answer questions as well.

All right, thanks, Eric. Board, any questions for Mr. Pavlenik?

Thank you for the presentation, Eric. Pretty straightforward application. I don't have any questions.

Could you please just go to the essentially satellite photo?

Excuse me. Bless you. Thank you, sir.

Okay, so there was supposed to be a road put there, and they built the first, I don't know, couple hundred feet, but did not turn it to the north for building purposes?

Yeah, I think that.

There's like a line there, but that's not. Yeah, that could be a two track.

But yeah, I don't think that's a public road has never been constructed within that cul-de-sac segment.

So everyone gets their home either by Perry Park Road or Pine View. Correct?

Yes, that's correct. Pine View Road provides access to the lots kind of on the east side here. And these homes get access off of Perry Park Road.

And it's been that way for quite some time? Nobody wants the road there?

Yeah, it's been like that since the subdivision was platted and homes were built. But yeah, I mean, everyone has access that surround that cul-de-sac segment.

Was that the 1970s? Yes, I believe 66 was the plat, yep. Okay, that's all my questions.

All right, thank you, Commissioner. Eric, can I get you to pull up the platting? Not so much the, yeah, there we go. Okay, so we saw from the satellite that lots one and two could have access from Perry Park Road, it looked like. Didn't see any development on lot one in the satellite photo. Do we know where those landowners are with this application?

We do. Lot one, I'm gonna go back to the aerial for reference.

Yeah, please.

Lot 1 has been notified. They received a courtesy notice. I believe they have provided a no objection letter that was included in the staff report packet. They do have access from the adjacent lot to the south. When they eventually build a home, they would have legal and physical access to Perry Park Road through an access easement that's been recorded with the county. They were not interested in the request.

Okay, so let's go back to our plat that then shows the easement. And it's Lot 8 that has... Yeah, so Lot 8 is here.

They just requested access to get to Pine View Road, you know, to the open space that's just north of the subdivision. Vivian Greenwood Campbell, one of the applicants, did acknowledge that they'll provide access, so we just are formalizing that by including that in the vacation resolution.

Eric, is that vehicle access or foot access? Pedestrian access, just... Pedestrian.

Yeah, because they, going back to the aerial... Yeah, they've got access off very far. So it's just pedestrian access to get from their lot to... Pine View Road and then north to the open space. That's north of the subdivision there.

Okay, and that's a part of the application is the applicants have granted that pedestrian access. Yep. And is that, just a little more detail, remind me how that is enshrined in the vacation.

So that is included at language in the vacation resolution, which if approved, that would be recorded, and that would just be vested as part of the vacation resolution that you guys would agree to.

Okay. All right. I think those are my questions. Any further questions, gentlemen? All right. We're happy to hear from the applicant at this time, if the applicant is present.

If they were.

Sir, if you could please come forward, give us your name, tell us where you're from, and please, your comments.

Ralph Berkland, I'm from Southern Douglas County. I live in lot seven on that diagram. I'm for it. I wanted to do it 20 years ago, but no one else was interested, and then VPN wanted to do it, and things were different. I've been there over 30 years. No one's ever used the road except for maybe whoever has an ATV, but it's not been developed, it's not been used. I'm game for it.

Okay, thank you, sir. Would you take questions from the board? Sure. Board, any questions for the applicant?

I don't have any, but I appreciate you being here today and going through the process. Likewise.

Yeah, totally. I guess I don't have any questions. I think staff took care of my questions. As long as you do not have a contradiction with what we heard from the staff report, I guess that would be my only question. Any contradictions that you heard in the staff report?

No.

Okay. All right. Thank you, sir. Very much appreciate it. At this time, board, any further questions back to staff before we go to public comment? All right, let's get a public comment. I did not receive anyone signing up for public comment. Would anybody like to speak on public comment on this matter? Seeing none, let's bring it back to the board for action. Gentlemen, how do we want to proceed with this resolution to, excuse me, for this road vacation on Pine View Circle?

Mr. Chair, I believe the approval standards have been met. I appreciate the applicant being here and the staff for the great presentation. If it does please the board, I'll make a motion to approve a road vacation at Pine View Circle because it does meet all of the approval criteria with two conditions as presented. Project file SB 2026-017. Second.

All right, gentlemen, there is a first and a second. Any discussion? I'm almost always okay with the road vacation. I know we've had some where it got a little, the debate around it was extensive. I don't see that happening here. Obviously we don't see anybody speaking against it here. So I'm all in favor. I speak in favor of the motion. Any further discussion? All right, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. And it is approved unanimously. Congratulations, sir. All right, that's all the business we have before us today in today's land use and public hearing. The next land use meeting and public hearing will be held on Tuesday, September 8th, 2026 at 2.30 p.m. Thank you all for being here. We are adjourned.