The Cascade County Planning Board will review proposed amendments to the zoning regulations during their Dec. 16 meeting.

The regulations were last updated in February 2021.

In a Dec. 11 staff report for the board meeting, Michael Harris, county planning director, wrote that the county is “required to update our regulations to comply with updates to state statutes and along with this we will be amending regulations to correct areas of confusing language, inconsistencies and inefficiencies.”

Harris wrote that the county would be “undertaking this process in several rounds of amendments.”

County approves intent to change zoning regulations [2020]

During their Dec. 16 meeting, they’ll consider an amendment to incorporate changes to state law made in the 2025 session and revisions proposed by county staff that have been reviewed by the county attorney’s office.

Senate Bill 175 from this year’s legislative session changed the creation of regulations, zoning districts and amending zoning regulations.

The process for creating zoning districts and regulations remains the same with a 45-day notice period before a hearing, a notice of intent by the county commission and a subsequent 30-day comment period. Amending a zoning district follows the same process.

Public meeting set for proposed county zoning regulation revisions [2019]

The process for amending zoning regulations has changed to a 15-day notice period, Harris wrote, and that the first round of changes will follow the process for amending a zoning district.

Cascade County’s zoning regulations define each zone and land use as a separate district, which is different than the structure contemplated by the Legislature of a countywide zoning district that contains zones to define the land use, Harris wrote.

That means that a simple map amendment to rezone a single parcel would have to go through the full process of amending the zoning district, which takes up to three months, according to Harris’ report.

County delays decision on zoning regulations; discusses meeting process, board packets [2019]

To streamline the process, county planners are recommending that the county amend its zoning regulations to follow state law, which will require changing the existing defined zoning districts to zones. That will establish a since county zoning district within which there will be defined zone, Harris wrote.

The recommended amendments include deleting a section on floodplain regulations entirely from the zoning regulations to “decouple” zoning and floodplain rules, since the county has separate authority for its floodplain regulations with its own statutory requirements and enforcement, Harris wrote.