County OKs Hodgson Road area zone change

 A zone change to convert 40 acres of suburban agricultural land to residential 2.5-acre lots won final approval from the Flathead County commissioners last week.

The 40-acre tract about 1 1/2 miles east of Whitefish Stage Road and south of Hodgson Road is owned by members of the Penney family and is zoned SAG-10, suburban agricultural with a 10-acre minimum lot size. 

Jerald Penney, who owns one of the 10-acre tracts, asked for the zone change to split off a portion of the family property to his son.

Neighbors in the nearby Plantation Pines subdivision opposed the change, arguing that creating smaller residential lots would set a precedent and could change the character of the rural area.

During the 30-day comment period that followed a preliminary approval of the zone change, the commissioners received seven letters of protest and two letters supporting the change.

The opposition didn’t meet the state benchmarks for contesting a zone change. Forty percent of the property owners within the U.S. 93 North Zoning District and 50 percent of the property owners using land in that district for agriculture or forestry would have had to protest the zone change to stop it.

A boundary line adjustment was not an option in this case, and to avoid spot zoning, the entire 40-acre tract was considered for the residential zoning with a 2.5-acre minimum lot size.

Penney said there are no plans to subdivide the property, which has been in the family since the 1950s.