La Plata County, CO Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Encampment Sanitation (2026)

Sections 38-1, 38-4 and 38-8 of the La Plata County Code, replaced by Ordinance 2025-01 effective February 14, 2025, govern encampments on land the county owns or holds by lease or easement. That covers county buildings and their sidewalks and parking lots, county trails, vacant lands, open space, county-owned roads, rights-of-way, ditches and drainage facilities. The Durango-La Plata County Airport and land leased to a tenant under a written lease are excluded.

Camping is defined broadly: parking a motor vehicle or recreational vehicle for the apparent purpose of overnight occupancy, erecting a tent or other shelter, or assembling camping equipment that shows a person has remained or intends to remain overnight or after the property closes. An encampment is one or more tents, structures or assemblies of camping equipment or personal property in an identifiable area, including areas where tents are in plain sight of each other. Under § 38-4 it is unlawful to camp or erect a structure, tent or other shelter on county property without the written permission of the county manager or designee. The one carve-out lets a person occupy a motor vehicle for no longer than forty-eight (48) hours on a county right-of-way or other county land in an emergency, such as adverse weather or vehicle inoperability. Periodic occupancy is not a defense where the La Plata County Sheriff's Office has probable cause to believe a person is camping in a vehicle. The manager posts notice of the prohibition as needed under C.R.S. § 18-9-117(2).

Cleanup follows § 38-8. Officials store non-hazardous personal property found on county property, including at encampments, at the building where it was found or at a county storage location, and property not recovered after seven days, counted from and including the day it was stored, can be disposed of. When property is collected during an encampment removal, the county posts a notice at the site for ten days giving the removal dates, the storage location and how the owner can claim it. Only after that period are unclaimed items donated, sold or discarded. Officials can remove refuse, hazardous items, building materials or contraband at once and without notice; the code lists human and biological waste, used oil, tires and dead animals among hazardous items, and law enforcement gets the first chance to take contraband.