One way to eliminate the confusion with starting a neighborhood planning effort may be to establish tiered-percentage guidelines that allow community support to build as a plan is drafted.

That idea emerged as one worth exploring when the Flathead County Planning Board and county commissioners met Wednesday for a work session.

When members of the American Dream Montana property-rights group recently questioned the level of community support for the Somers and Lakeside neighborhood planning efforts, it became evident to county officials that language in the county growth policy is too vague about how to get a planning effort started.

The growth policy states that "a clear majority" of landowners and residents desiring a neighborhood plan may develop one, but there's no direction about how to establish a majority of support.

"Do we need to look at Chapter 10 [of the growth policy] and make some changes?" Commissioner Dale Lauman asked.

The consensus was yes.

Planning Board member Jim Heim pointed out that it takes support from only 10 percent of affected citizens to start a sewer district. For a fire district the buy-in is even lower, at 5 percent.

What if communities started the neighborhood plan process with documented support from 10 percent, then ended the process with a much larger percentage of buy-in, Heim suggested.

"I like the split percentage idea," Commissioner Jim Dupont said. "The problem right now is…the clear majority. What does that mean? The clearer we can be, the safer it is for [Planning Office Director] Jeff Harris and for us."

Dupont said the growth policy needs to more clearly define what steps need to be done by a community before the county gets involved with a neighborhood plan.

When the growth policy was written, several Planning Board members pushed for language calling for a petition signed by 60 percent of affected property owners before a plan could be written. That recommendation later was stricken by the commissioners.

Requiring a majority of support from the get-go would stifle planning, board member Mike Mower said.

"I'd suggest we all be brutally honest … that there'll never be another neighborhood plan if we make the prescription so difficult," Mower said.

Dupont said he understands the frustration of Somers and Lakeside property owners who weren't notified and feel left out of the process. He lives in the Canyon and wasn't notified of a planning effort for that area.

"I'm not against neighborhood plans," Dupont said. "There are ways to connect to people" to get them involved in the process.

Planning Board member Jeff Larsen was blunt: "The process is broken."

He pointed to the recent Evergreen neighborhood plan effort that was stopped before it even began because "one guy hornswoggled" county officials into thinking there was support for such an effort.

The group agreed to allow time at the July 8 Planning Board meeting to set a time schedule of how to work toward drafting changes to the neighborhood plan chapter of the growth policy.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com