Hall wants long-range planning commission
In an effort to take a comprehensive look at some of the critical growth issues facing Flathead County, Commissioner Gary Hall is proposing a new long-range planning commission.
Hall announced the concept on Thursday, three days after the Whitefish City Council dealt a blow to the valley's joint planning efforts by indicating it will withdraw from the Tri-City Planning Office next July.
The intent of the new commission, Hall said, is to help the valley decide how and where it wants to grow, rather than simply responding to various development pressures.
"Over the last two years, I've come to realize that the county planning board and the commissioners don't have enough time to adequately address long-range planning issues," Hall said. "The planning board just reacts to growth. We as commissioners, and the citizens of the county, are reacting, too. Given the rapid development we're facing, we haven't been doing justice to our citizens by not having some kind of long-range vision in place."
The lack of long-range planning was one of the reasons Whitefish gave for its decision to withdraw from the Tri-City office, which handles planning issues for Kalispell, Whitefish and Columbia Falls.
The county planning office and county planning board also are regularly criticized for not doing strategic planning, but Hall said they're all too busy just trying to keep up with subdivision and zoning applications.
"I'm hoping this relieves some pressure from the planning board," he said. "We have to do something. We can't continue to let someone else fill in the void."
Plans for the new commission are still tentative, Hall said. However, it would probably include representatives from Kalispell, Whitefish and Columbia Falls; one commissioner; and representatives of the various county offices that are directly affected by growth and cost-of-service issues, such as the sheriff's office, road department and planning office.
He also said it should include a representative from Evergreen, together with four at-large community members.
The commission would be responsible for developing a long-range vision document that would help define what people want the county to look like in 2010 and 2025.
"I see this as an advisory document that's adopted as an appendix to the growth policy," Hall said. "With a great deal of public input, it would provide guidelines regarding where we'd like to see our transportation corridors, our industrial and commercial corridors, and where we want residential development or farmland."
Much of the relevant information should already be available, he said, and simply needs to be pulled together. Other communities also have gone through this process and could help the Flathead learn from their mistakes.
Hall said he would like to have the commission in place by January, with a finished vision document available by June 2006.
Where the money will come from to pay for the commission's efforts is unclear.
Given that Kalispell Chamber of Commerce members have identified land-use planning as one of their top issues for the last three years, Hall hoped they might pony up some money. He also suggested that state or federal money could be available, if people with grant-writing experience would volunteer their time and assistance.
The commissioners are expected to take formal action on Hall's proposal before the end of the year.
In an effort to get a jump on the process, the county is already seeking applications from anyone interested in serving as one of the four at-large members.
Letters of interest, including name, address, daytime telephone number and qualifications, should be sent to the commissioners at 800 S. Main, Kalispell, MT 59901. The deadline for application is Jan. 7.
Reporter Bill Spence may be reached at 758-4459 or by e-mail at bspence@dailyinterlake.com