Ballot effort proposed for Egan Slough district

Two Egan Slough area residents are leading a petition drive for a special election that would allow residents throughout Flathead County to vote on expanding the Egan Slough Zoning District.

The petition drive is the latest effort to enlarge the zoning district to include the property where Lew Weaver plans to build a water-bottling plant.

In November 2016 the Flathead County commissioners denied a petition to add 530 acres to the Egan Slough Zoning District, a tract of 1,150 acres of largely agricultural land near Creston. Egan Slough neighbors sued the county, asking the court to declare the commissioners’ decision unlawful and an abuse of discretion. The litigation is still pending.

On Jan. 13 John and Amy Waller submitted a petition request to the county Election Department, asking for a special election to be held May 2 in conjunction with school elections. The petition is being reviewed for form and substance by the County Attorney’s Office, which has 21 days, or until Feb. 3, to complete its review.

If approved, the petition will require signatures from 16,778 registered voters, 25 percent of the electorate, to be put on a ballot, according to county Election Supervisor Monica Eisenzimer.

Petition proponents have 90 days after the Feb. 3 review deadline to collect the signatures, but in order to be certified to be on a ballot by May 2, the signatures would have to be certified — “that means collected and our office have all of them verified” — by Feb. 6, Eisenzimer said. In this case, 90 days after Feb. 3 puts it past May 2, so they would miss that election day, she added.

Since only municipal elections will be held in November, the next available election slot for the Egan Slough issue would be the June 2018 primary election, Eisenzimer said.

Kalispell attorney Tom Esch, who represents the Wallers, said his clients assert that “every legislative act of a government is reviewable by the electorate.”

Esch acknowledged that gathering that number of signatures in the time allotted is an ambitious task.

“We’re cutting it close, but they have legions of people who agree this is a worthy effort,” Esch said. “They’re going to try.

“The commissioners still have the option to do the right thing and change their mind,” he added. “This is democracy at its most basic form.”

The Wallers were involved in the original zoning effort that used citizen-initiated zoning to create the Egan Slough Zoning District in 2002. At the time, farmers and other landowners rallied to preserve farmland when a youth camp was proposed on 160 acres.

Sixty percent of the affected property owners were required to petition for the Egan Slough Zoning District when it was created, and more than 60 percent of property owners supported the proposed expansion of the district last year.

The commissioners maintained the zoning effort was an attempt to stop an individual landowner from going through the permitting process to set up a water-bottling facility. Ultimately they decided the county would be restricting property rights by expanding the district.

Weaver has applied for a water right with the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, which is still in the validation process. A wastewater discharge permit from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality also is still under review, agency spokeswoman Lisa Peterson said Tuesday.

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