New county gravel rule may help

County Commissioner Joe Brenneman is probably right in his assertion that a zoning text amendment passed this week to help regulate the location of new gravel pits is "about as good as it's going to get."

The change gives the Flathead County Board of Adjustment expanded regulatory discretion over gravel pits by defining all zoning districts that allow residential uses - everything from suburban 5-acre tracts to 80-acre agricultural parcels - as "residential zones," but only when it pertains to gravel pits or asphalt and concrete plants.

The amendment seems to be an adequate compromise for now, especially given the Flathead Valley's exponential growth. It's not likely to ultimately solve the battle of property rights that pits the rights of landowners wanting to develop gravel pits against neighbors who don't want them in their back yards. The change does offer some measure of protection for rural residents, though.

The Board of Adjustment, an autonomous committee of five people appointed by the county commissioners, has now been given the discretion and flexibility to decide which areas are appropriate for gravel pits and the ability to prohibit them in cases where the negative impacts can't be reasonably mitigated.

That's a lot of power for five people.

Under state law, decisions by boards of adjustment cannot be appealed, leaving litigation as the only option for opposing a decision of the board.

We wouldn't mind seeing another level of oversight for this board, one that would allow the county commissioners to consider an appeal. But state law would need to change first.

For now, we'll have to trust the board to carefully consider each gravel-pit request. It's a temporary fix for just one element of a high-growth arena in which there will be mounting concerns and controversy as development pushes into the Flathead's fringes.

Gravel pits have been a hot-button issue ever since the Board of Adjustment upheld a county zoning administrator ruling that the county couldn't prohibit or impose conditions on new gravel pits unless they were in residential zoning districts. A new state law addressed that ruling, but came up short by not defining what was meant by residential. That forced counties such as Flathead to shape their own parameters.

The text amendment won't resolve the continuing tension over the West Valley gravel pit that was OK'd June 14 by the Board of Adjustment. But it is a way to deal with future growing pains as they pertain to gravel pits, and that makes us better off than we were before.