Flathead County District Court has voided a business zoning designation the Flathead County Commission approved in 2012.
The B-2HG zone, commonly referred to as the greenbelt zone, allowed business and commercial uses on property served by primary and secondary highways in Flathead County. The zone was subject to mitigation requirements, such as building heights and enhanced signage and lighting standards. It also requires a greenbelt, with prescribed percentages of the property to be dedicated for setbacks.
The zone included 27 permitted uses and 36 conditional use possibilities.
Six property owners along U.S. Highway 93 north of Kalispell originally sought the text amendment allowing greenbelt zoning, and once it was approved, sought zone changes for their properties, totaling about 60 acres in the Highway 93 Zoning District.
Flathead nonprofit group Citizens for a Better Flathead filed a lawsuit against the county commission, seeking to void the new zoning designation, contending that the commission failed to follow statutory and regulatory rules – most notably the Flathead County Growth Policy – when considering the text and map amendments.
District Court Judge David Ortley’s July 1 order declared that the commission’s approval of the text and map amendments was “an abuse of discretion,” and that the amendments and zone changes are voided.
Ortley wrote that the “new zone, which can be utilized anywhere in the County that is served by a highway, fails to consider neighborhood plans which encompass a major transportation corridor. This lack of comprehensive consideration is contrary to the Growth Policy which places great importance on existing neighborhood plans.”
The order also notes that planning staff from the county, Whitefish and Kalispell all recommended denial of the new zoning designation, and the commissioners failed to address public concern that was not consistent with the growth policy and that there was no discussion about how the new zone might constitute spot zoning.