3/16/2010 5:33:00 PM Editorial: Moratorium on community plans wisest choice for Yavapai County
Something happened at Monday’s meeting of the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors that was more important to the Beaver Creek area than the other controversial topic on the agenda.
It was not unexpected, but it brought a halt to a long-running effort to update the Beaver Creek Community Plan. This was an effort that was just reaching the finish line, at least from the community’s point of view.
The county opted instead to stop work on all community plans.
The moratorium is an effort to save on staff time. It was the fiscally prudent move to make, as badly timed as it was for the Beaver Creek area. It was also a kindness to county employees.
The county has its own general plan that it must update, by statute. On the other hand, the community plans for the unincorporated communities within the county have no such statutory requirement attached. For a planning department that has cut 40 percent of its staff over the past few years, it was obvious where the workload had to fall.
Though Beaver Creek leaders saw this coming, there was hope they would get an exception. They were almost ready to hand over their completed work to the county. Years of effort have gone into the community plan.
But what would have been the end of work for the community was just the beginning of work for county planning staff. With other communities like Paulden and Big Park coming forth with their community plans, the county simply does not have the manpower for those tasks while still meeting the required deadlines of its own general plan.
Even granting exceptions to plans already “in progress” would have been too much for a staff dealing with new state obligations. The moratorium is more than considerate of the work put in by county employees.
The moratorium is far from fatal and does not trash the work already done on the community plans. When the county’s first priorities are met, staff can revisit the community plans now in limbo. It is highly inconvenient, but the moratorium is wisest management choice the county could make under the circumstances.
