Flathead County Commissioners voted 2-1 to approve a zoning change that has stirred controversy in Bigfork for more than than two years.
The Sept. 16 public hearing gave landowners Mike Touris and Chuck Sneed a requested zoning change on their Bigfork properties. The parcels were previously designated as agricultural and are now zoned as light industrial.
There has been significant resistance to the zoning change from members of the Bigfork Land Use Advisory Committee and the Bigfork Steering Committee. Both committees were upset about the commissioner’s last-minute change made to the Bigfork Neighborhood Plan in June.
The controversy arose after Commissioners Dale Lauman and Jim Dupont voted to change the properties’ future land use designation from agricultural to industrial, which would mean a future industrial zone change would fit in with the neighborhood plan.
The landowners had unsuccessfully pursued a zoning change in 2008, and appealed to the county commissioners to change the future land use designation when they considered the Bigfork neighborhood plan earlier this year.
After the map addition was made, the landowners resubmitted their request for the zone change, receiving recommendations for approval from BLUAC and the Flathead County Planning Board. The planning board recommended a change from agricultural to light industrial highway, which is slightly more restrictive than light industrial.
At the Sept. 16 hearing, BLUAC member Al Johnson said his committee did not take issue with the idea of a plumbing business going on the parcel between two existing businesses, but instead with the way the commissioners changed the map. BLUAC and BSC members said the map addition circumvented public notification and the overall county planning procedure.
Johnson argued that the map change, which he described as “spot-zoning,” was not the best way to address the landowners’ or BLUAC’s wishes, and less drastic options were available.
“If you want to kill a fly you don’t use a 12-gauge (shotgun),” Johnson said. “You use a fly-swatter.”
The commissioners voted 2-1 to allow light industrial zoning, with Joe Brenneman dissenting. Dupont and Lauman expressed disappointment with the situation.
“I find it atrocious that this took over two years,” Dupont said.
Lauman described the last-minute zone change as common sense, not political, because of the existing businesses in the area.
The commissioners will hold a 30-day comment period before making the final decision on the zone change.