Polson Commission reconsiders zoning change

Housing topped the Polson City Commission agenda again last week, with commissioners unanimously approving draft language that would allow two-family dwellings in low-density residential districts.

The vote followed lengthy discussion among the board and with community members about how to add more affordable housing units to the city’s inventory.

Commissioner Tony Isbell, who initiated the zoning change last month, said he had taken a quick survey of available houses on the market for $450,000 or less in Polson and found only five homes, with just one listed for under $300,000. He pointed out that none of those prices are very affordable for working families, especially at 7.5% interest.

“Maybe as a city if we’re aggressive on this we could ease some pressure,” he said.

City manager Ed Meece noted that the Legislature is considering several bills that would force cities, typically those larger than Polson, to take action on the statewide housing shortage. Among those are bills that would reduce lot size to 2,500 square feet (Polson’s is 7,000), require multi-family dwellings, and limit lot setbacks and other zoning regulations.

“When you see this kind of push from the Legislature, it’s not going away,” he said. “I’d much rather have a situation where we do this ourselves at the local level the way we want to see it done, rather than have a mandate pushed at us from the state.”

Mayor Eric Huffine perceives the proposed legislation as “pushing for communities to get creative in this matter. Either we choose or the Legislature will make us do it.”

Commissioner Carolyn Pardini was less receptive to state interference in local matters.

“This legislation, in my opinion, is directed at reducing municipal decision-making,” she said. “It’s a power grab.”

The draft change to the city’s zoning code approved last Monday will still go through several modifications and four more opportunities for public input. The next step is a public hearing of the proposed text amendment before it’s submitted to the City-County Planning Board, which will also host a public hearing. The amendment then returns to the commission for a vote on the first reading of the text amendment, followed by a second reading and final vote.

Commissioner Jen Ruggless inquired whether the issue of short-term rentals should be considered alongside the zoning amendment.

“That is a huge, big issue itself,” replied Meece. He added that while the two-family zoning amendment under consideration “might be controversial, it’s not complicated.”

The issue of regulating short-term rentals, on the other hand, “will be complicated in a variety of ways … It needs to be its own effort.”

He suggested that the commission could choose to address short-term rentals in the near future, since they are “a destabilizing factor in the local housing market.”

Homeowner Scott Harmon told the commission that while amending low-density zoning regulations to allow duplexes “does not frighten me as much as it did at first,” short-term rentals “are the elephant in the room.”

Without regulation, he predicted duplexes could crop up specifically for use as vacation rentals, cause parking congestion and change the character of local neighborhoods.

Former city commissioner and appraiser Lee Mannicke asked for more information on the number of new houses built in Polson over the past year. He estimated 66, based on the number of inspections conducted, which is “quite a few historically in Polson.”

He also asked the planning department to gather information about which neighborhoods and homeowners’ associations within the city already have covenants in place prohibiting short-term rentals and/or duplexes.

“Somebody needs to sort that out before this goes to the planning board to avoid confusion,” he said.

Homeowner Donna Houle urged the city to take a closer look at the ways in which more development impacts infrastructure, including streets and sidewalks. “Yes, we need to grow – but we need our infrastructure to grow with it,” she said.

“When you’re planning great things for Polson you need to keep in mind our little parks we take for granted, our roads, the water, the sewer.”

“It’s straight up a funding issue,” replied Huffine. “We do the best we can with what we have – all in all, it boils down to money.”

World water-meter champ

The commission also heard from Cole Davis, who recently established a world record for putting together a water meter in record time.

Davis, who is an operator at the Polson sewer plant, learned that a conference he planned to attend in Great Falls had a competition for assembling water meters. He was sent a practice meter and estimates that he practiced putting it together about 2,000 times in eight days.

“It turns out I didn’t need to be quite that good at it,” he confessed. “But I did almost lose out to a girl from East Glacier who has very, very fast hands.”

By winning the state competition, he landed a trip to Maryland. The national contest was a little trickier, he said. “I ended up cutting my finger in the first round of competition and bled all over the table so I lost.”

However, “a big boss guy asked if I wanted to do a world record attempt.” He poured all the ingredients from a box onto a table and reassembled the meter in 55.44 seconds, even with a bandaged finger, beating the previous record of 59.49 seconds.

“It’s really a pointless skill but I enjoy pointless skills,” he told the commissioners. “This is right up my alley.”

Meece pointed out that Davis’s dexterity was actually quite an asset to the city. “As one the of lead water operators, Cole keeps water flowing and fixes leaks, even when it’s 17 below zero,” he said.