County growth policy closer to completion

The Lake County Planning Board will meet in February to further discuss the second of the draft growth policy and accompanying density map.

A decision to continue the discussion to next month came after a two-hour public hearing during which the public, Planning Board and one county commissioner shared opinions on the current draft. The extra time will give Lake County residents an opportunity to review and add comments to the policy before it’s officially adopted, board members said.

The current growth policy was adopted in 2003, with a density map added in 2005.

A growth policy is a public document that is intended to guide future economic growth and development of the county. It’s a document that officials and the public often refer to for construction purposes and grants.

The map was adopted to address residential development within the county, regardless of impacts to community values, as stated on page 55 of the document.

County commissioners are leaning toward making the density map an advisory component, which, according to residents and members of the planning board, has been against the majority of public input.

Prior to the meeting, Lake County Commissioner Gale Decker explained the reasoning behind the proposed switch.

“The way [the density map] is now, when folks come in with questions” of what they can and cannot do with their property, they are regulated by the map document. Moving it to an advisory document would make it easier to develop parcels. Decker acknowledged through email that he is aware of projects that individuals wanted to complete, including creating additional lots on property they owned but were not allowed to do so because of density restrictions.

About a year ago, the commissioners began working with Land Solutions of Charlo on gathering data for updating the policy.

After public hearings last summer, the first draft was completed in late December 2017, allowing the public a little more than a week with holidays for comment.

During the meeting, Thompson Smith of the Flathead Basin Commission pointed out that the Tribal Council is fairly new, having taken office at the beginning of January.

He also commented that the working relationship between the county and tribal government historically has been strong. Smith added that “throwing” new tribal council members into discussions of the policy and map possibly could compromise that relationship.

Jordan Thompson, a tribal member, tribal attorney and tax-paying citizen, echoed Smith’s sentiment of the density map as a partnership between the county and tribal governments.

He said that it is “disheartening” that although the public has strongly stated the density map should be kept as a regulatory document, the commissioners are still leaning to change it to advisory status.

“I hope that we have more time so that we can all think about this a little bit longer, reconsider and think about the best” option, Thompson said.

Decker addressed the public and the board, saying he felt when the density map was adopted in 2005, the commissioners then communicated that the map would not stay in place as regulatory.

“What drove that was that this is the 2003 growth policy,” Decker said, adding that the map goes with information in the growth policy document.

“We are writing a new policy. We are not amending the old one,” he explained.

If the density map were an advisory tool, Decker said not every plan submitted to the county would be approved.

He also said he did the only amendment to the current density map, which took two years and “well over $1,000.”

Planning Board members Steve Rosso and Janet Camel each stated they approached the commissioners about amending the current document, and the proposed meeting and conversation were not held.

Decker said he was unaware that the intention of the board was to discuss amending the map and policy.

There were 320 acres east of Ronan that Decker and his team were able to successfully amend density regulations from 20 acres to 10 acres.

“There were landowners in the district who owned 10, 20 and 40 acre parcels who gained the ability to create more parcels due to the change in density,” he explained.

The time-consuming and expensive process may have discouraged others from trying to amend the map, he added.

Decker said he believes the county commissioners have considered the public’s viewpoints.

“Sometimes under the regulations we have right now, we can have a project that makes complete sense, but we can’t do it because we’re regulated by regulations,” Decker said, acknowledging the growth policy and map are complex and often controversial topics.

Regardless of the process, “it’s a commissioner decision with what to do with it,” he concluded when talking to the board.

The Planning Board meets at 7 p.m. on the second Wednesday each month at the Lake County Courthouse.

The 2003 growth policy and drafts can be read at https://www.planlakecounty.com