For the past several decades, the Boulder County Horse Association (BCHA) has spent many hundreds of hours working closely with the Land Use Department to create a set of “horsekeeping regulations” that everyone could live with.
We believe that the existing Land Use Code has been working extremely well, and in fact we have been unable to obtain any information from Staff that it hasn’t. There have been few, if any, complaints from the public – and in a “complaint-driven process” such as Boulder County Land Use, that information in itself is a remarkable indicator of success!
We are also unable at this time to determine whether there are elements of the horsekeeping components that seriously need to be changed.
Therefore, if it isn’t broken, we strongly suggest not trying to fix it. Regulations just for the sake of having regulations is not a good use of anyone’s time or resources.
We do have a few recommendations at this initial stage of the “Agricultural” section discussion:
1) Keep the definition of “Agriculture” as outlined in 18-104 (“Uses involving the cultivation of land, production of crops, raising, breeding, and keeping of livestock and the buying and selling of crops, products or livestock associated with the agricultural operation.”)
2) Add a definition of “Normal Farming Practices,” which is currently not in the Code. We suggest something similar to the US Army Corps of Engineers’ definition, which is: “normal farming operations include cultivating, harvesting, minor drainage, plowing, and seeding” (Clean Water Act Section 404); and add the phrase “livestock grazing.”
3) Support Agritourism. Agriculture in Boulder County is diverse and colorful. The agriculture community would benefit economically, and the spin-off economic benefits would extend to the entire County, if Land Use constraints on activities such as B&B’s and Farm Stays were made less burdensome. We suggest reducing the levels of review and other requirements on these uses in the Agriculture Zoning District.
We remain, as always, willing to work with Staff to provide more information about the realities of horsekeeping in Boulder County, and to be part of a task force with Staff to revise the Code if necessary.
