Judge lifts injunction affecting Lakeside plan

Å Flathead District Court judge on Tuesday lifted a court order that had prevented a 2010 update of the Lakeside Neighborhood Plan from taking effect.

A preliminary injunction was ordered last year until a lawsuit filed against the county by a group of Lakeside area property owners could be settled. Since then, six of seven legal issues in the lawsuit have been decided in the county’s favor.

Affected property owners sued the county and the Lakeside Neighborhood Planning Committee in 2009, challenging the neighborhood planning process and alleging violations of open meeting laws.

The remaining issue in the lawsuit is whether public records were destroyed.

A year ago the county moved to dissolve the preliminary injunction based on the court’s summary judgment ruling that an amended complaint in the lawsuit did not seek to void the Lakeside Neighborhood Plan and the conclusion that the remedy the property owners sought — a declaration that the “draft Lakeside Neighborhood Plan is illegal and unconstitutional and therefore of no force and effect” — was not available.

Judge Stewart Stadler reiterated that conclusion in Tuesday’s ruling, noting that the amended complaint doesn’t request that the county’s decision adopting the plan be voided.

“Plaintiffs’ argument that the Lakeside Neighborhood Plan Committee’s destruction of public records require that the county’s decision be voided are based on a decision concerning an agency’s destruction of records and it has been determined that the [committee] was not an agency,” Stadler wrote.

While the updated plan has been on hold since the injunction was granted, the county has maintained that when the updated plan was enjoined, the original 1995 Lakeside plan was still in effect, Deputy County Attorney Paul Nicol said.

Flathead County Planning Director BJ Grieve said no private development project has been on hold because of the court-ordered injunction.

The Lakeside Community Council had a scheduled meeting Tuesday night at which Grieve planned to brief the council members and talk about what may or may not happen in the future regarding the neighborhood plan.

Although the updated plan was approved by the county commissioners, it still needs to be implemented, he said. That implementation calls for the creation of several committees, such as a town center committee that would draft a downtown master plan for Lakeside.

Since implementation would require a certain amount of Planning Office staff time and resources, Grieve said it ultimately will be up to the county Planning Board and commissioners on how to proceed. He noted there are several other neighborhood plans in line for updating, and the planning staff was reduced during the local economic downturn.

The strategic plan for fiscal 2013 doesn’t have any neighborhood plan updates listed, Grieve said.

A jury trial for the remaining public-records issue is scheduled for the District Court trial term from Dec. 3 to Dec. 14. Nicol said he expects a trial date to be set at a pretrial conference on Thursday.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include David G. Allen, Eleanor M. Allen, Johnathon D. Allen, Aaron C. Allen, Kristy D. Allen, Darren J. Clarke, James R. Frame, Roxanne M. Frame, John M. Day, Bill B. Blomgren, Charles E. Harris, Judy K. Harris, Dennis Thornton, Donna Thornton, Jim Etzler, Beverly E. Etzler, Chris M. Rasmussen, Remi C. Rasmussen and Joyce C. Day.

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