After working for months on updating the Flathead County Growth Policy, the Flathead County Planning Board is now asking whether the document is even necessary.
During the June 13 public hearing on the latest draft of the document, the planning board heard hours of testimony from the public about changes in the updated version of the growth policy.
After hearing the public comment, several board members asked the staff at the Flathead County Planning and Zoning Department to write up the pros and cons of having a growth policy, and what possibly could be affected if the planning board simply recommended that the county commission do away with it entirely.
The reason behind the discussion mainly centered on the amount of lawsuits the county could face due to changing the growth policy, and whether the controversy over updating it would be worth the trouble.
State law does not mandate that counties have growth policies; a planning board can create of such a document when a governing body requests it. In this case, the county commission did request a growth policy, as well as the current update.
County Planning Director BJ Grieve prepared a memo for the board, highlighting what could be affected if the growth policy is thrown out. He noted that while it is not mandatory, the growth policy is a pre-requisite for some planning actions.
For example, Grieve said that repealing the growth policy could lead to repealing the county’s neighborhood plans and topic specific plans, such as the Flathead County Parks and Recreation Plan or the Flathead County Trails Plan.
The county’s current zoning policy, called Part 2 Zoning, is dependent on the growth policy as well, Grieve said, and repeal could impact new zones and amendments to zoning. It would also have to be determined if the current zoning would still exist if the growth policy does not, he said.
Subdivision regulations could also be affected, as well as planning and zoning in the areas three miles outside the city limits of Kalispell, two miles outside the city limits of Whitefish and one mile outside the city limits of Columbia Falls, Grieve wrote.
Repealing the growth policy could affect how the board can take action on certain aspects of public infrastructure, Grieve said.
The planning board is scheduled to discuss this matter at its July 11 meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Earl Bennett Building in Kalispell.
Mayre Flowers, the executive director at the nonprofit Citizens for a Better Flathead, said her organization is concerned that the planning board is considering a drastic step away from merely updating the growth policy to removing it all together.
The growth policy is in place to help guide development and maintain the character of the valley, Flowers said, and tossing out the growth policy would negate countless hours of work and negotiation given to aspects such as neighborhood plans.
It could also lead to strip development, she said, instead of directing businesses to the urban centers of the valley.
“This is a pretty radical step for the planning board to take,” Flowers said in an interview last week. “Not having a plan puts our economic future at risk.”
The current version of the Flathead County Growth Policy is available online at www.flathead.mt.gov/planning_zoning.