Projects not subject to whim

The tentative $1 million cash settlement reached last week in the North Shore Ranch lawsuit is a painful reminder for the Flathead County commissioners that land-use decisions must be based on facts, not opinions.

For better or worse, our laws stipulate that if a proposed development meets subdivision requirements as this one did, it legally can’t be turned down no matter how much opposition there is or how much personal disdain a commissioner or city council member might have for the project.

Even though the Flathead County Planning Board had issues with the density of North Shore Ranch, proposed next to a waterfowl production area near Somers, the board advised that it saw no legal grounds to deny the project.

Had the commissioners heeded their board’s recommendation, there would have been no lawsuit. But commissioners Joe Brenneman and Gary Hall believed that “as a matter of policy” subdivisions shouldn’t be built on property with flood easements. That was their opinion.

Taxpayers will bear the brunt of this settlement, not so much in the $1 million payout that will come from the county’s building-fund stash but from the added requirement that the county build and pay for all North Shore Ranch subdivision roads and two highway turn lanes on Montana 83. That could push the entire settlement to $3 million or more, based on the going rates for road construction.

The paving money will come out of the county’s limited road budget, and taxpayers are right to wonder how that will affect the much-needed paving of other dusty roads throughout the county in years to come.

There is a public benefit in the settlement with a 150-acre easement for open space near the north shore of Flathead Lake. The agreement requires that $600,000 of the $1 million settlement be used to buy the easement, and if the developers sell the property they’d have to give the $600,000 back to the county. Open space is a good thing.

The county denies any liability for damages and essentially admits no guilt for turning down the subdivision. But we have to ask, what is the potential $3 million settlement if not a liability for every single taxpayer in Flathead County?