Panel upbeat after meeting on Tuesday

Flathead County commissioners are only slightly closer to approving new subdivision regulations after hunkering down Tuesday afternoon for a workshop.

For more than two hours, commissioners met with Planning Director Jeff Harris and Deputy County Attorney Peter Steele to hammer out existing concerns about the updated set of regulations. Flathead County's current subdivision regulations do not comply with state standards.

Most of the issues raised at the workshop were not contentious, but mostly involved clarifying the wording within the document.

Steele and Harris agreed the group had dealt with about 80 percent of the document, and though another meeting would be necessary, they were encouraged by the progress.

Most of the hotbed issues, which were raised during the two previous public hearings, have been removed from the document and will be reviewed later by the Planning Board.

Among the major items removed from the regulations are stream setbacks, "remainders" and cluster development.

The subdivision regulations most likely will be approved without those items, Harris said. After being reviewed by the Planning Board, they may be placed into the document.

Harris stressed that the public has had plenty of opportunities to review and consider the subdivision regulations.

"There have been about 150 comments made," he said. "And we've considered each comment."

Almost 100 changes have been made to the text, Harris said.

The commissioners agreed to schedule another workshop for next week, to address their remaining concerns. They also agreed to hold a public participation workshop for the end of June.

The current draft of subdivision regulations may be viewed at http://www.co.flathead.mt.us/fcpz/index.html.

The county commissioners' agendas may viewed at http://co.flathead.mt.us/commiss/cmagenda.htm.

Reporter Amy May may be reached at 758-4459 or by e-mail at amay@dailyinterlake.com