Polson issues 60-day water 'stay'

The Polson city council unanimously approved a 60-day water moratorium at last week's meeting, meaning they won't approve any new requests for annexation during that time, after council members said they wanted some time to review the city's upcoming growth policy and related issues over the next two months.

An overflow crowd, including Realtors, developers and those who are closely monitoring the proposed Wal-Mart supercenter, showed up, and many were clearly hoping to have a discussion about the larger issue of the city's water and sewer infrastructure, but city council members emphasized that this was simply to give them some "breathing room" to analyze the new growth policy, impact fees and other related issues, especially with three newly-elected council members on board.

Councilman Mike Lies said he proposed the resolution to suspend annexation so that they could go over the new growth policy expected to be released early next month.

"This is just to give us a chance - some breathing room - to go through the growth policy and impact fees," he said.

Lies and Fred Funke have served on the council before, but were elected last month, along with Bruce Agrella, after taking time away from city politics.

But many people in the room, after seeing the words "water moratorium" on the city council agenda, were clearly hoping to have a larger discussion of infrastructure issues, after a consultant outlined his concerns about the city's water system in a presentation last summer. In that presentation, he said the city's system was already almost at capacity, and needed upgrades in many areas.

Since then, the city has made improvements, including the installation of a new filter most recently, but several subdivisions have also been approved along Highway 35 last year and elsewhere in the city, and the expected Wal-Mart supercenter proposal has increased discussion over how much growth the city can handle.

Lies said "stay" was probably a better word than "moratorium." The city lifted its most recent moratorium in October of 2004, and since then, growth-related issues have become a priority for many residents.

City attorney James Raymond said the temporary "stay" would not apply to subdivisions that had already been given approval.

Carolyn Beecher, who is helping to coordinate Lake County First, a group that is opposed to the proposed supercenter, asked if it applied to applications already in progress, and mayor Randy Ingram said that "anything in the works is not necessarily guaranteed approval" because it still has to come before the council.

The site of the proposed supercenter would have to be annexed into the city, with council approval, and would not have access to city water and sewer without that approval. Although an engineering firm has been hired to do a community impact study for the city, a formal application is not expected until late February or March.

If the council doesn't feel that city services are available or adequate, then it can reject any annexation request, Ingram said, without referring to any specific application.

When Beecher asked why 60 days was chosen, Lies said that was enough time to allow the council to evaluate the new growth policy.

"The growth policy is very comprehensive," he said.