Finances could stall plans for growth policy consultant

Plans to hire a consultant to help update the Flathead County growth policy might have to be revised due to financial constraints.

By state statute, all planning jurisdictions in Montana must adopt growth policies by Oct. 1, 2006, if they want to continue to do zoning.

After determining that Flathead County wasn't going to meet that deadline by relying exclusively on the already-swamped county planning board, the commissioners started advertising last November for firms interested in helping with the update.

Three finalists were interviewed for the job last week. Collins Planning Associates of Jackson, Wyo., was identified as the top choice.

However, the interview process also indicated that an outside firm would likely charge much more than the county can afford. Consequently, the county might end up hiring someone locally to do the work.

"I don't want to keep going down this road and burn up a lot of time if the number the consultant is talking about is nowhere near what we can budget - and that seems to be the direction we're heading," B.J. Grieve with the Flathead County Planning Office told the county commissioners on Thursday.

Commissioner Gary Hall said the county has about $60,000 for the update and might with difficulty stretch that to $100,000.

Based on comments made during the consultant interviews, interim Planning Director Johna Morrison suggested that's about half what an outside firm probably would charge.

Hall pointed out that some preliminary work already has been done on Flathead County's growth policy update. There also are several local groups - including the recently formed Long Range Planning Task Force - that could gather information to help complete the document.

Commissioner Joe Brenneman advised being upfront with Collins about the county's financial constraints - letting the company know what kind of resources would be available here to help complete the growth policy, and asking what they could do in this situation.

If that approach doesn't work, Hall suggested hiring someone locally who can work on the project exclusively for the next 18 months or so.

Reporter Bill Spence may be reached at 758-4459 or by e-mail at bspence@dailyinterlake.com