Larimer County residents who plan to host events at their homes will now have to comply with new regulations for personal events and special event permits.

The Board of Larimer County Commissioners approved unanimously on Monday amendments to the land use code that would create what county Principal Planner Matt Lafferty called a three-tiered approach.

1. Personal events, which are further defined in the amendments, to include “a gathering for social activities such a family celebrations,” club meetings and demonstration parties, among others, would not require a special events permit.

2. Other types of special events, such as weddings (for commercial purposes) or activities on a residential property, which exceed 40 people would require a special event permit. Only three of those events would be allowed in a calendar year, and the “total impact of the year shouldn’t be more than 30 days.” The three-event cap applies to any type of special event, whether it has 10 people or more than 40. With all special events, there’s an appeals process for denials and even for approvals, if neighbors don’t agree with the approval.

3. For those who want to exceed those limits and want to run events as businesses, they can request a special review process to have their property considered as an event venue such as a community hall. If approved, those entities would not have to request a new permit or review for each event.

The process for obtaining those permits will remain the same for the most part.

Lafferty said prior to these changes, residents didn’t have to obtain permits on any event that had less than 300 people — the 30 days of impact, however, for permitting other than for community hall type venues, was always part of the code.

And while staff “recognized some holes” in the code over the years, the county was also beginning to receive complaints, so Lafferty said staff and the Planning Commission decided to take action sooner rather than later.

On March 6, Planning Department staff presented recommendations of the Planning Commission and staff members to the Board of County Commissioners.

Commissioners took public comment at that meeting but tabled the vote to a future meeting to get more information from staff. So, commissioners didn’t take public comment on Monday. The item was placed on the consent agenda, but a resident asked for it to be removed, and commissioners received a brief update from staff on the item.

But for Kitty Wild not taking public comment and the changes to the regulations have left her “stumped,” she said.

Wild and Mike Nolden own 36 acres in the county and host events such as the Creepy Walk in the Woods, Christmas Walk in the Woods and the Medieval Festival each year.

Wild said she has several problems with the changes, including the fact that many of the documents referring to the changes stated that the cap for special events would be five a year, not three.

But Lafferty said there was a lot of discussion about the cap, ranging from three to seven, and though the Planning Commission recommended five, the commissioners ultimately approved three after hours of discussion and the initial public comments.

For Wild, that cap of three events per year is limiting. In addition to the larger events the owners host, Loveland Classical Schools also has its in annual Civil War re-enactment on their property, and she and Nolden were exploring adding other events in the future.

Plus, she said the 30-day impact limit is even more limiting — the Christmas event, for example, they would want to open the day after Thanksgiving, but that would take up the entirety of their 30 days.

Wild insists that some of her events have been targeted specifically as they’ve grown over the years, musing that it could be because the county prefers to hold its special events at venues such as The Ranch — which the county owns.

“Our little hobby took on a life of its own,” she said. “We thought we were handling it correctly.”

Wild said switching the property to a community venue through the special review process would require them to run it as a business, which also means more property taxes.

And they’re not necessarily prepared to do that — so she and Nolden are weighing their options, she said.

One of those options includes subdividing the property for homes — the utilities are already there, she said.

“We weren’t ready to go in and do a full-blown subdivision. … The whole thought process when we started this was we can grow something other than houses,” she said.

Wild also said she feels the new regulations will make political activities more difficult to take place — she thinks that now, they would require a special event permit because they can’t be considered personal events legally. And making them special events and requiring permits means paying fees ($100 for nonprofits and $250 for everyone else for special events on county roads or private land).

“My other concern is from my political activist front,” she said. “I believe county commissioners just stopped any meet-and-greets in the county because they can’t be considered personal events.”

While Lafferty said he thinks a small party at a home would constitute a personal event, he would need to look at the code further before making a final call specific to political events.

The new regulations are set to take effect June 1.

For more information, go to http://www.co.larimer.co.us/specialevent/.

Saja Hindi: 970-699-5404, hindis@reporter-herald.com, twitter.com/BySajaHindi.