Flathead County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a public meeting in Somers last week, after a gathering meant to provide information on a potential neighborhood plan dissolved into a shouting match.
The Somers community is in the earliest stages of considering the possibility of a neighborhood plan. Such plans act within the broader framework of the county’s growth policy to offer more detailed guidelines for growth and planning in a specific region of the county.
Flathead County Planning Director Jeff Harris said last Monday’s meeting was the third in a series aimed at explaining how the neighborhood planning process works. “We were there at the request of the community to provide information,” he said.
But after a brief introduction, Harris made it only partway through the first informational slide before audience members upset by the idea of a plan and the process interrupted. The situation quickly became unruly, disintegrating to the point of profanity-laced diatribes. A pair of sheriff’s deputies dispersed the crowd.
“That’s the worst it’s been in my time here,” Harris said. “These people were not interested in being civil; they were looking to hijack the process.”
Opponents at the meeting argued that the county growth policy states a clear majority of residents and landowners are needed to form a neighborhood plan. The number of people in Somers responding to the county’s notification, they say, doesn’t constitute that majority. As a result, opponents argue the county is spending taxpayer money on something only a few people want.
They also accused the county planning office of pushing an agenda and excluding them from the public process.
Three members of the Flathead County Planning Board – George Culpepper, Jeff Larsen, and Randy Toavs – voiced similar concerns at a meeting earlier this month, peppering Harris with questions about the county’s role and expenditures in assisting communities with neighborhood plans. They argued that the county shouldn’t get involved until there was majority support.
Culpepper and Larsen went so far as to push for a vote to suspend all planning department activity regarding the Somers Neighborhood Plan until a clear majority of supportive residents were identified and those supporters reimbursed the county money spent so far. Their motion failed 4-3.
The county’s growth policy says, “A clear majority of landowners and residents … may develop a neighborhood plan.” It also, however, outlines six steps in the planning process as “a mechanism by which if a clear majority of the landowners do not support a neighborhood plan, the Planning Board can recommend denial…” Those steps include making an effort to publicly notify all landowners; an initial organizational meeting; and base-lining existing conditions.
Where the two sides disagree is when the county’s planning office should become involved.
Opponents say the planners should leave everything to the public and not assist until the majority is clear. Harris, however, said that wasn’t the intent of the growth policy, arguing instead that the informational meetings and questionnaires being sent out in this early stage were meant to determine if that support exists.
“I believe people have a right to understand what’s involved before they’re expected to make a decision,” he said. “The county should be a resource for that information.”
At least two of the county commissioners seem to agree. At a subsequent commission meeting, Harris asked the commissioners to clarify the appropriate staff involvement in light of the Somers meeting and planning board members’ questions.
Commissioners Dale Lauman and Joe Brenneman said they both remembered discussing the planning department’s role in the process during the drafting of the growth policy. People at that time, they said, had argued the department’s involvement was necessary to ensure credibility and equal opportunity for citizens – especially opponents – to voice their opinions.
“Now, they’re saying they don’t want the county sending out mailings,” Brenneman said. “Well, they’re fundamentally saying they just don’t want neighborhood plans.”
The commission agreed to consider Harris’s draft clarifying staff assistance with the plans, possibly making a decision as soon as the next week.
As for the Somers plan, Harris said residents there had been asking the county to return for another shot at an informational meeting. “We hope that we’ll be able to go back and have a civil discussion,” he said.