Lakeside plan crosses the finish line

Applause broke out Wednesday when the Flathead County commissioners gave final approval to an update of the Lakeside Neighborhood Plan, bringing an end to a three-year process fraught with controversy, delays and litigation.

Nearly two dozen Lakeside residents gathered at the commissioners’ chambers to make their final comments. All of them supported the plan.

“I honestly feel we came up with a good consensus and a good plan for Lakeside,” said Barb Miller, a member of the Lakeside Neighborhood Plan Committee.

Commissioner Dale Lauman, whose district includes the Lakeside area, said he believes the neighborhood plan is fair and a good representation of how Lakeside residents want to plan for future growth.

“Some people have the wrong perception” about neighborhood plans,” Lauman said. “They’re not regulatory, not zoning. It’s a plan and everyone plans for the future.”

The Lakeside plan covers roughly 24,060 acres, of which 6,880 acres are managed by the federal or state government and 17,180 acres are privately owned.

The planning area boundaries are Spring Creek Road to the north, the Lake County border to the south, Flathead Lake to the east and the approximate boundaries of U.S. Forest Service land to the west.

The Lakeside planning effort began in summer 2007 with a mandate from the county to the Lakeside Community Council to revise and update the 1995 plan to comply with county growth policy. It’s been a long, arduous process getting an updated plan that reflects the heavy growth in Lakeside over the past several years.

Lakeside residents were nearly two years into the planning process when a fracas erupted in July 2009 over allegations of open-meeting and open-record law violations linked to a Yahoo website used exclusively by the neighborhood planning committee and county planners.

Miller, a retired computer systems project manager, set up the private Yahoo website in 2007 for convenience to share files, schedule meetings and e-mail about questions and issues. The county quickly asked the committee to shut down the website after complaints from Lakeside and Somers area residents.

Miller contended the website was meant to be a helpful tool in the planning process and that there “was no collusion, no secrecy and no conspiracy.”

Other complaints involved meetings held in private homes instead of public places and a lack of notification to absentee landowners. Both issues were remedied; meetings were switched to the Lakeside Library and an additional 815 surveys were sent to property owners who hadn’t been notified.

A group of two dozen Somers and Lakeside property owners sued Flathead County, then-Planning Director Jeff Harris and the Lakeside planning committee, challenging the neighborhood planning process and alleging violations of open meeting laws.

The County Attorney’s Office advised the Lakeside committee and the Planning Board to continue working on the plan despite the pending legal action.

The lawsuit still is pending in Flathead District Court and has been on hold until the commissioners made a final decision.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.