Deadline requested on growth-policy review

Flathead County commissioners want Planning Board to finish by Oct. 15

The Flathead County commissioners want the Flathead County Planning Board to wrap up its review of the draft growth policy by Oct. 15.

The commissioners made the request Monday, in response to legal concerns about their ability to approve new zoning applications and concerns about the impact this legal uncertainty could have on development proposals.

The Planning Board was scheduled to vote on the draft policy during a special meeting tonight.

Most board members, however, say the document deserves greater scrutiny than was allowed for in the initial schedule. Several have also questioned whether the policy should even be sent to the commissioners until it includes some sort of future land-use map.

Consequently, it could be three or four more weeks at best before they're ready to forward a recommendation, and it might take much longer.

In the meantime, the Planning Office isn't accepting any new applications for zone changes, zoning text amendments or planned unit development proposals (which involve modifying the underlying zoning).

This temporary moratorium is based on Deputy County Attorney Jonathan Smith's legal opinion that zone changes can't be approved after Oct. 1 unless a valid growth policy is in place.

Even projects that are in the middle of the planning process are being affected. If they can't make it through the entire process by Oct. 1 - including a required 30-day protest period - then Smith is recommending that the commissioners not take final action.

At least two other attorneys have questioned this interpretation of state statutes and suggest that the commissioners do have the option of approving at least some zone changes. Smith says he could argue the issue either way, but given the prevalence of land-use lawsuits in Flathead County, he thinks the most defensible approach is to put the zone changes on hold.

"If we do a zone change after Oct. 1 [without a valid growth policy in place], then somebody could sit on the sidelines for six months before bringing a class-action lawsuit that would tie everything up," Smith said during a meeting with the commissioners on Monday. "That's the problem I see. It appears to me we wouldn't have much of a defense. I think the legislative intent was to tell local jurisdictions that, if they want to continue zoning, they need to get a growth policy in place by Oct. 1."

Doug Averill, who has been working on a major development proposal in the Bigfork area for more than a year, told the commissioners Monday that the lack of a growth policy is jeopardizing a $20 million project.

"We've had people sell their homes and relocate here" to work on the development, he said. "Many people are being affected [by the moratorium], so we'd like some idea of how we can work through this situation."

Averill submitted a plan amendment last year that would accommodate a 319-unit residential project in the hills near the southeast corner of Montana 35 and Montana 209. He followed that up with a planned unit development proposal this summer.

That project is scheduled to go to the Planning Board on Oct. 11. However, it could be put on hold because of the zoning moratorium.

Averill encouraged the commissioners to let the proposal proceed through the planning board hearing, in the hopes that a growth policy will be in place by the time the development comes to them for final approval.

Similarly, the county is looking for ways to accommodate a group of Somers/Juniper Bay residents who want to form a new zoning district along Flathead Lake because of substantial development pressure in their neighborhood.

Their zoning request was scheduled for the Sept. 27 planning board meeting - too late to make it through the entire process by the Oct. 1 deadline. Consequently, the county is considering adopting emergency zoning for the area, which would put some controls in place until the growth policy is adopted and permanent zoning can be approved.

The planning board has been working diligently to complete its review of the policy, and clearly understands the urgency of the task.

Its work session tonight takes place in the second-floor conference room of the Earl Bennett Building, from 6-9 p.m. Beginning next week, it will hold work sessions at 6 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays in the commissioners' hearing room, 800 S. Main, in Kalispell.

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