17.140.100 Appeals to the Board of County Commissioners.

Any person aggrieved by the decision of the Planning Commission may, upon the terms and conditions hereinafter set forth, appeal the decision of the Planning Commission to the Board of County Commissioners. The term "any person or entity" as used herein shall include, but not be limited to, any department, under the direction of its director, of Pueblo County.

17.140.101 Procedure.

Any person or entity desiring to appeal a decision of the Planning Commission upon a Special Use Permit may initiate an appeal by filing a request for the same with the Director of the Pueblo County Planning and Development Department. Such request for an appeal shall include the number of the Special Use Permit being appealed, the date of the decision rendered by the Pueblo County Planning Commission, the decision of the Pueblo County Planning Commission and the grounds for the objection to the decision. Such appeal shall be initiated by such person or entity by filing the request in writing with the Director of the Pueblo County Planning and Development Department within ten (10) days of the date of the final decision of the Planning Commission. Such time limitation shall be jurisdictional and no request for an appeal will be considered if filed later than the period specified herein.

17.140.102 Consideration of Appeal.

A review before the Board of County Commissioners upon a request for appeal from the Pueblo County Planning Commission's final decision granting or denying a Special Use Permit is a matter addressed to, and to be determined by and within, the sound and sole discretion of the Board of County Commissioners. Requests for appeal will be granted only where there are special and important reasons therefore. The following considerations, while not limiting, measuring or completely controlling the Board of County Commissioners' discretion, are an indication of the type and character of reasons which will be considered by the Board in deciding whether or not to hear an appeal.

A.    Where there have been conflicting, or apparently conflicting, decisions by the Planning Commission on the same or substantially similar Special Use Permit applications.

B.    Where the decision being appealed has or may have a significant impact on the administration of the land use regulatory authority of Pueblo County.

C.    Where the decision on the Special Use Permit is, or appears to be, contrary to the dictates of the Pueblo County Comprehensive Plan.

D.    Where the Special Use Permit application involves consideration of matters important to the overall regulatory policy of the Board of County Commissioners.

E.    Where the Special Use Permit application has drawn significant interest amongst the community at large and beyond the more immediate interests of the applicant landowner and adjacent landowners.

17.140.103 Board Action.

The Board of County Commissioners shall consider such requests for appeal in accordance with the standards set forth in the previous section and shall, first, make a decision whether or not to grant and hear the appeal within forty-five (45) days following the date of the final action on the Special Use Permit application by the Pueblo County Planning Commission. The Board may issue a decision refusing to grant and hear the appeal and, upon the date which the Board issues such final action, the decision of the Board shall affirm the decision of the Pueblo County Planning Commission and, shall, for all purposes, including further appeal to the Courts, be final.

Alternatively, the Board may decide to grant and hear the appeal and, in such event, the Pueblo County Department of Planning and Development shall notify the person or entity initiating the appeal and, additionally, shall prepare, send and publish notice of the hearing on the appeal in accordance with the following provisions.

A.    A notice shall be prepared which gives the time, date, and place of the hearing, a brief description of the appeal and the legal description and/or street address of the property to which the Special Use Permit being reviewed applies.

B.    A copy of such notice shall be sent by mail to the person or entity initiating the appeal and, further, to those same persons or entities at their last known addresses to whom notice of the hearing before the Pueblo County Planning Commission on the Special Use Permit was given. Failure to mail such notice to every property owner due to clerical omission shall not affect the validity of any hearing or determination of the Board of County Commissioners. The Board of County Commissioners, however, may determine that such act of omission should be corrected and, therefore, may continue any such hearing until such time as notice in compliance herewith is made.

C.    A copy of such notice shall be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the County.

D.    Proof of compliance with this Chapter shall be by the written statement of the Director of the Department of Planning and Development, or his designee, giving the names and addresses of the persons to whom the notice was mailed, and the date of mailing, and that the publisher's affidavit of publication will be obtained. Such proof shall become a part of the record of the hearing before the Board of County Commissioners on the appeal.

The hearing on all appeals granted by the Board of County Commissioners in accordance with this Section shall be de novo and the hearings shall be conducted in the same manner as are other land use hearings pursuant to the Pueblo County Zoning Resolution. The decision of the Board, after hearing, shall be made through the application of the Board's findings on the evidence presented at the hearing and applying the standards for Special Use Permits set forth in Section 17.140.050 of this Code.

The Board shall take action on an appeal so heard at a public meeting and its action need not be in writing or set forth in any special form, but the record of such hearing shall, when considered as a whole, include a factual basis for the finding of the Board that the standards for the granting of a Special Use Permit have, or have not, been met. The Board of County Commissioners should state clearly for the record those factors, which it has considered in reaching its decision to grant or deny a Special Use Permit. Special Use Permits approved by the Board of County Commissioners pursuant to this Section shall not be personal to the applicant, but shall be transferable and shall run with the land for which the permit has been approved.

The Board may, in accordance with the provisions of this Section, reverse or modify the decision of the Pueblo County Planning Commission or the Board may affirm the decision of the Pueblo County Planning Commission. The Board shall enact its final decision on such appeals by a summary written resolution and the decision of the Board shall, for all purposes, including appeals to the Courts, be final on the date of enactment of said resolution.

In the event the Board decides to hear an appeal in accordance with the provisions of this Section, it shall render a final decision and the resolution referenced herein no later than ninety (90) days following the date upon which the Pueblo County Planning Commission action on the Special Use Permit application was entered and became final.

17.140.104 Legal Remedy.

The findings and decision of the Board of County Commissioners on such appeals for Special Use Permits shall be final. Appeals to the District Court shall be made within thirty (30) days from the date of the final action by the Board of County Commissioners on appeals of Special Use Permit decisions as specified herein.

17.140.105 Fee.

All applications for the appeal of a Special Use Permit decision previously entered by the Pueblo County Planning Commission shall be accompanied by a fee as set forth in a separate Resolution of the Board of County Commissioners, which fee must be paid and a receipt therefore be presented to the Director of the Pueblo County Department of Planning and Development prior to any action by the Board on the appeal. All fees shall be made payable to the County of Pueblo. Fees paid and collected pursuant to this Chapter shall not be refundable. No application for an appeal will be considered unless the same is accompanied, when submitted, by a payment of the required fee.