The Ward County Planning Commission moved to put what was termed a Band-Aid on a controversial right-of-way ordinance Thursday.

The commission voted 6-2 to amend an ordinance requiring property owners to donate and dedicate extra right of way when creating plats. The change reverts some roads back to the 33-foot right of way provided in state law.

The next step is a public hearing and second reading before sending any recommendation to the county commission.

Commissioner Josh Wolsky, who had asked for the change, said the goal is to reduce the number of requests for variances to the donation requirement while waiting for completion of a comprehensive plan and associated new ordinances to permanently address the issue.

The change replaces a 40-foot right of way (from the road center on either side) with a 33-foot right of way on townships roads and undeveloped section lines. Where a township road deviates from a section line, the right of way remains 40 feet.

Commissioner Norman Livingston questioned requiring more right of way for a portion of a road because it deviates from the section line. County engineer Dana Larsen said the rationale relates to the space needed to construct a new road off the section line compared to maintaining an existing road on the section line.

Livingston suggested extra right of way beyond 33 feet can be purchased by the township rather than donated by the landowner.

Planning Director Nancy Simpson said the proposed amendment is an attempt to address a problem but it isn’t a final fix.

“This is a stopgap measure,” she said. “This is a Band-Aid.”

“In my opinion, this is not a fix. This is a partial Band-Aid,” Commissioner John Fjeldahl said. “Most of our variances are not related to an undeveloped section line.”

Fjeldahl and Livingston voted against the change only because they felt it did not go far enough to alleviate concerns with the ordinance.

“This is a step in the right direction. It gets us by,” said Commission Chairman Kenton Kossan. “Until we get this hammered out, this is the best that we’ve got.”

“We have different ideas on how to fix this, but we are not getting anywhere,” Wolsky added. “In the meantime, we are using time and resources on each one of these variances that comes through.”

It was estimated the change would eliminate about 10% of plat proposals that are affected by the ordinance.