By LAURA BEHENNA - Bigfork Eagle

The Lake County Subcommittee of the Bigfork Steering Committee will begin holding public meetings in late June to discuss where to set the boundaries of a special planning and zoning district for northern Lake County.

The district would be a tool to give residents a voice in the growth and development of the community while protecting property values.

The subcommittee decided early summer would be the best time to hold public meetings because most of the area’s summer residents would be available. Subcommittee members agreed to contact community centers in Ferndale, Swan Lake and Yellow Bay to ask about dates when public meetings could be scheduled.

The county line between Flathead and Lake counties would form the northern boundary of the district. To the east, all developed roads east of Hwy. 83 would be included.

Three options for the southern boundary of the district are on the table:

? Option 1 would include the northern end of Lake County from Bigfork to just south of Woods Bay (about 30 square miles) and east through Ferndale and the Swan Sites.

? Option 2 would extend the boundary south to the Yellow Bay clubhouse (150 square miles) and east to the mountains.

? Option 3 would also include the area south of Swan Lake down to Fatty Creek Road (240 square miles). Option 3 would cover all of School District 38, which includes Bigfork.

Many people live south of Soup Creek in Lake County and have community ties in Condon, Dan Roberson, director of Swan State Forest for the Department of Natural Resources Conservation, told the subcommittee. But only about five people live north of Soup Creek in that area, and most of them are large landowners who probably wouldn’t be interested in joining a new planning and zoning district, he said.

Some attendees expressed doubts about whether the option 3 area should be included in the district, but all agreed that the residents in that area should make that decision. East Shore residents, who already have a zoning district specific to their area, will also have the opportunity to decide whether or not to be included in the new planning and zoning district.

The Lake County district would have an advisory council with seven elected members, similar to that of the Bigfork Land Use Advisory Committee. Subcommittee chair Leslie Budewitz suggested setting up the district so that the advisory council writes its own growth policy.

“Flathead County has a bajillion neighborhood plans,” DNRC planner Anne Moran said. She encouraged the group to consider modeling its own growth policy/neighborhood plan on one or more existing plans to avoid having to “reinvent the wheel.”