County OKs planning deal

Flathead County Commissioners approved a new planning agreement with Columbia Falls on Tuesday, but made revisions that raised concerns for the city.

In one of his final planning actions as commissioner, Howard Gipe joined Gary Hall and Bob Watne in voting for the plan.

Gipe retires Dec. 31, but the commissioners canceled their meetings between Christmas and New Year's Day. Final action on the Columbia Falls planning boundaries and interlocal agreement was one of the commission's aims before Gipe leaves and Joe Brenneman takes office.

Before voting for the agreement Tuesday morning, Deputy County Attorney Jonathan Smith briefed the commissioners on changes he recommended.

First, he said the county should delete a provision that automatically extends planning boundaries when Columbia Falls annexes land and extends its city limits. Within a year after such an annexation, according to the original contract, the planning boundary automatically would extend one mile beyond the new city boundary.

After deleting that item, Smith recommended adding a sentence to the contract's next provision.

That section provides for the city and the county to meet yearly to review the agreement, and every five years to review boundaries. Smith advised adding a sentence calling for the city and county to meet annually to approve boundary changes if needed.

Smith also recommended striking a provision on attorney's fees. If one of the two parties were to take the other to court over the agreement, the current contract says the prevailing party would be entitled to its attorney's fees.

Smith told the commissioners that such a provision invites litigation rather than deters it.

The commissioners agreed with his advice and asked him to redraft the contract, with revisions, to present it for their signatures today.

The news didn't sit well with Columbia Falls City Manager Bill Shaw on Tuesday afternoon.

"I couldn't advise my council until they've seen it" to approve the revised contract, Shaw said. "Obviously, it's not the contract my council agreed to."

The city and county had been working on a revised planning and zoning map and finally agreed on new boundaries this fall.

The city's overall planning area shrank by more than 50 percent when the planning boundary went from about 4 1/2 miles outside city boundaries to a mile.

But the new map grants the city sole planning, zoning and subdivision authority west to the Blue Moon area, north to include North Hilltop and all of Meadow Lake Resort, north and east to include Cedar Creek Reservoir, Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. and U.S. Forest Service land, and south across the Flathead River. It excludes Columbia Heights to the east and a section of CFAC land near the House of Mystery.

Outside that boundary, the county would have exclusive authority.

The map and interlocal agreement were the topic of a jointly held public hearing on Nov. 29.

Shaw said he sent a copy of the agreement to Smith two weeks before that hearing, but had heard nothing of the pending revisions until Tuesday. The City Council unanimously approved the map and interlocal agreement on Dec. 6.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com