Growth comments due by 5 p.m. Friday
The deadline for public comment on Flathead County's revised growth policy is fast approaching, but only a handful of letters have been received.
The 30-day written comment period began shortly after the commissioners approved the revised draft on Feb. 5. It ends Friday at 5 p.m.
Five letters have come in so far. They all include pre-printed material asking the commissioners to "fix the neighborhood plan chapter." A couple also have personal remarks.
"We are retired, and if we don't control growth our property taxes will go up and up and up. We will be forced to move, as growth requires new schools, roads, hospitals," wrote Dianne Grove of Happy Valley.
Gil Jordan of Coram recommended that the commissioners "concentrate all new development next to existing high-density development and leave rural, agricultural and scenic areas undeveloped. These undisturbed areas are the valley's greatest assets. Don't allow developers to destroy the best we have to offer."
There was no indication where the pre-printed material came from. Among other items, it encouraged the commissioners to remove policy 44.5, which allows new neighborhood plans to be nullified "if 40 percent of the landowners within the plan area, or if landowners representing 50 percent of the acreage, sign a protest petition within 90 days."
That language was added by the Flathead County Planning Board. It's identical to the zoning protest standard contained in state law.
The material also asked that commercial and high-density residential land uses not be allowed in neighborhood plan areas.
"Keep the neighborhood plan land-use categories simple and few," it said.
The material asked that all of the changes made by the planning board or commissioners to the neighborhood plan text and land-use categories be set aside, and that the language proposed in the original draft growth policy be used instead.
Finally, it asks that several policies from the 1987 master plan be included in the 2007 growth policy, and that the 1987 future land-use map be used for guidance until the "development predictability map" called for in the growth policy can be created and adopted.
Friday is the last opportunity people have to formally comment on the growth policy before the commissioners take final action.
After reviewing any letters and making any last-minute changes, they're scheduled to decide March 19 whether to accept or reject the document.
Comments can be mailed to the commissioners at 800 S. Main in Kalispell, 59901. They can also be e-mailed to enelson@co.flathead.mt.us
Copies of the revised draft are available at www.co.flathead.mt.us/fcpz/growthpolicy.html
If the growth policy is approved, the Flathead County Planning Office plans to hold a series of town-hall meetings to answer any questions and address any fears or misconceptions people might have about the document.
All of the meetings will take place at 6 p.m. The dates and locations include:
March 26: Flathead Electric Cooperative
March 27: Marion School gymnasium
April 9: Lakeside chapel
April 17: Bethany Lutheran Church in Bigfork
April 24: Glacier National Park community building
May 1: Mountain West Bank in Whitefish
Reporter Bill Spence may be reached at 758-4459 or by e-mail at bspence@dailyinterlake.com