Board rescinds moratorium proposal

Easy come, easy go.

One week after recommending that an 18-month moratorium be imposed on new growth policy amendments, the Flathead County Planning Board reversed course and rescinded its proposal.

The initial recommendation was made on March 30, following a five-hour public hearing on the massive Two Rivers growth policy amendment. The idea originally came up during a planning office staff meeting.

The decision to rescind the recommendation came on Wednesday after concerns were raised about the lack of public notice prior to the March 30 action.

"We've found three cases where moratoriums have been adopted in Montana, and all of them were declared null and void by the Montana Supreme Court due to the lack of public notification," former planning board member Russ Crowder said during the board's public comment period.

Over the last 18 months, the board has received numerous calls for a growth policy moratorium. Rather than continue to spend time on developer- or landowner-driven amendments, people have suggested that the board would be better off using the time to complete the overall growth policy update.

On Wednesday, board member Kim Fleming said the county commissioners could still call for a public hearing prior to implementing the proposed moratorium. Consequently, she felt there was no need for the board to alter its recommendation.

However, board member Gene Dziza said he'd had second thoughts.

"It might not be a good idea to hold these amendments back and then have a flood of them [in 18 months]," he said. "We should probably deal with them at a pace we can handle."

Since Jan. 1, 2004, the planning office has handled a dozen growth policy amendments, more than double the number received in 2002 and 2003 combined.