RIO GRANDE COUNTY- The Rio Grande County Commissioners opened a discussion pertaining to agricultural building permits during their work session Monday, July 13, to discuss the need for additional changes to the agricultural building use permit code that does not require some of the regulations a regular building permit requires.

In many counties like Rio Grande, due to the large amount of agricultural buildings needed in the area, the Building Department issues an agricultural building use permit which can be purchased for $50. Rio Grande County Chairman John Noffsker explained the purpose of the permit and how it works stating, “If a person wants to build a potato shed on their property, they can come in and get the agricultural building permit which does not come with some of the regulations that a regular building permit requires. There are no building inspections during construction or after the building is complete and the building does not have to be up to code.”

The conversation then turned to how the board wanted the policy for the agricultural use permit to be worded to prohibit people from purchasing the agricultural use permit and then building a residential home. The legal wording in the policy needed to reflect and prohibit the use of the permit for anything other than an agricultural building.

According to Building Department Director Randy Kern, the policy was passed by a previous board even before he was hired on as the director. Noffsker stated that it appeared the adopted policy came from, or was copied from, another county and that the current board needed to review the policy and get it worded correctly to reflect the desires of the current board.

The board decided after a brief discussion that Kern would review the policy/regulation and present a draft for approval during the next scheduled meeting.