The Flathead County Commissioners at their Nov. 1 meeting continued a public hearing for a text amendment to the North Fork Zoning Regulations after members of the public blew through the allotted 15 minutes of hearing time for the agenda item. Commissioner Pam Holmquist recommended continuing the proceeding to Nov. 29 to dedicate more time to the divisive issue.
The zoning amendment is an extensive rewrite of Section 3.40 North Fork of the Flathead County Zoning Regulations (FCZR) submitted by the North Fork Land Use Advisory Committee (NFLUAC). In early 2021, NFLUAC began working on the text amendment and formed an ad hoc committee to conduct outreach to community members, meet with planning staff and write the draft amendment. At an April 15 meeting, NFLUAC unanimously voted to forward a positive recommendation to the county planning board.
Proposed changes to the regulations broadly included alterations to definitions, additional conditional-use permit requirements and the addition of performance standards that adhere to the neighborhood plan.
Specific changes included adding “work camp” as a conditional use, combining convenience store and gift/souvenir shop, and changing references to “cabins” to “accommodations,” among others.
In June of 2021, the Flathead County Planning board held a public hearing on the proposed amendment but tabled the issue until it was taken up in August of 2022. At that meeting, the board voted unanimously to adopt the findings of fact in the county staff report but voted 6-0 to recommend the commissioners deny the amendment.
Several members of the public spoke against what they considered a problematic hearing before the planning board that included “emotional outbursts” from board members.
According to Jim Rittenburg, a member of the North Fork Land Use Advisory Committee, the planning board didn’t take up discussion of the amendment until 11:37 p.m., and the acting board chair, Gary Stevens, focused on parts of the zoning regulations that were not altered in the amendment.
“After midnight, the planning board did two things: They voted to accept the staff report and all of its findings of fact without discussion, and they voted to forward the text amendment to the commissioners with a negative recommendation,” Rittenburg said.
The rewrite of the FCZR arose after a series of conditional-use permit applications in recent years that led to conflicting interpretations over North Fork regulations. Rittenburg said hundreds of hours went into the amendment, including workshops with the planning board and county planning staff.
Betsy Holycross, a North Fork resident, commented to commissioners to the need to clarify some of the FCZR.
“Our current regs have ‘rental cabin,’ but cabin isn’t defined,” Holycross said. “Does that include yurts or tepees? Open to interpretation.”
Rental cabins, and guest cabins, are renamed as ‘accommodations’ under the amendment to include other structures. The new policy also clarifies that the stated density of one rental unit per five acres does not disqualify smaller parcels of land from having a rental property. The staff report stated the clarifications will result in “more predictable development guidelines.”
In addition, the report stated that the proposed amendment “preserves the rights of the property owners in the North Fork, and continues to preserve the scenic qualities of the area,” and found the proposal to comply with all review criteria.
“This is an ongoing process,” Larry Wilson a North Fork landowner since 1953, told the county commissioners. “It’s had one big goal and that is to protect property rights, to allow development on the north fork and to protect existing landowners.”
The Flathead County Commission will resume public comment at its Nov. 29 meeting.