Any applicant for a development permit or approval, or the County Attorney, Community Development Director, Planning and Zoning Commission, Board, or any other affected party, may appeal an approval, conditional approval or denial of a development application or any other decision made pursuant to this Land Use Code.
Any adversely affected party, which shall include the Board of County Commissioners, may appeal any decision made pursuant to the calculation and payment of the employee housing impact fee.
(b) Limitation
Appeals shall be limited to decisions made in the application of this Land Use Code. Appeals of the adoption of this Land Use Code or any standard, criteria, requirement or provision of this Land Use Code may only be taken to the District Court pursuant to Colorado Rule of Civil Procedure 57.
The authority of the Board to appeal decisions shall be limited to decisions where the decision-maker identified in Table 2-1 is not the Board.
Decisions by the Board of County Commissioners in the application of this Land Use Code may not be appealed through the provisions in this section, but may instead be appealed to the District Court pursuant to Colorado Rule of Civil Procedure 106. Any affected party, including an applicant, property owner, or owner of contiguous property, may file an appeal.
(c) Appeals to Board of County Commissioners
An administrative decision made by the staff of Pitkin County, or a decision by any decision-making body (including the Board of Adjustment, Hearing Officer, or Planning and Zoning Commission) may be appealed to the Board of County Commissioners.
(d) Time Frame for Appeal
No appeal shall be considered unless a notice of appeal and brief written statement of the grounds for appeal is received by the Community Development Director not later than fifteen (15) working days of the decision.
If the decision being appealed was made by a decision-making body in a meeting or hearing that was recorded or transcribed, no appeal shall be considered unless a transcript of the recording is provided to the County, at the appellant’s expense, within sixty (60) working days after the decision.
Within fifteen (15) working days after the receipt of a written request pursuant to subsection (1) above, or the transcript pursuant to subsection (2) above, whichever is later, an appeal meeting before the Board of County Commissioners will be scheduled by the Community Development Director. To the degree possible, appeals will be scheduled for the next regularly scheduled meeting of the Board that will allow required notices to be made pursuant to Sec. 2-20-100(b).
(e) Effect of Filing Appeal
If an appeal is filed pursuant to this section, processing of the development permit or approval that gave rise to the appeal shall be suspended until the Board has made a decision on the appeal. In cases where a lengthy appeal period is anticipated, the applicant may request and the Board may approve an exception allowing for the review and processing of the development permit or approval, provided that the outcome of that process shall incorporate the results of the appeal.
(f) Hearing
At the meeting on the appeal (which shall be a public meeting), the Board of County Commissioners shall review the record of the decision and shall provide the appellant an opportunity to discuss the grounds for the appeal and the basis for the alleged error in the decision. After the presentations from all adversely affected persons, the Board may hear from any other person(s) it deems appropriate.
(g) Criteria
An appeal is not a de novo consideration of the merits of the development application that gave rise to the appeal. The appeal body identified in Table 2-1 shall only reverse, modify, or remand a decision on appeal if it finds that that there has been a clear and demonstrable error, abuse of discretion, or denial of procedural due process in the application of the facts in the record to the standards of this Land Use Code.
(h) Decision on Appeal
Actions
Based on the testimony heard at the meeting and the record, the Board may affirm, modify or reverse the decision, based on the criteria of subsection (g) above or may by resolution remand the matter to the individual or decision-making body that made the decision with directions for future action. In the case of an appeal of a GMQS scoring decision by the planning and zoning commission, the Board, in addition or in lieu of such actions, may rescore the project.
Historic Preservation Demolition and Economic Hardship
Appeals from Administrative Review of applications for Demolition of properties listed on the Historic Register or listed on the Historic Inventory and subject to a Historic Preservation Management Agreement are subject to additional procedures and options as set forth in Sec. 7-20-100(d).
Form
The Board’s decision on each appeal shall be in the form of a resolution, and shall include findings of fact and the application of those facts to the relevant standards.