Brenneman floating township idea

By ALEX STRICKLAND / Bigfork Eagle

For a place like Bigfork, unincorporation is a little too little and incorporation is a little to much, but County Commissioner Joe Brenneman is exploring a proposal that could be just right.

Brenneman is looking for input on an idea that would create "townships," a division of government that would fall somewhere in between a fully incorporated city and an unincorporated area like Bigfork.

"The County Commissioners would still retain statutory obligations to run the county," he said. "But they would do so with clearer instructions from the community."

For instance, under the current system, a proposed development or zone change goes before the local advisory board, the Bigfork Land Use Advisory Committee. That committee then forwards a recommendation to approve or deny a project to the Flathead County Planning Board who then forward a recommendation to the commissioners. It is possible in the current system for the recommendation of the local group to be reversed by either of the bodies above them.

In a township system, Brenneman said, the town council (which would replace any advisory boards) could vote to recommend approval or denial for a project, and while applications with a recommendation of approval would continue on just as they do now, a denial would kill the project at the local level and a developer or applicant would have to revise the project and bring it back before the town council before it could travel further in the process.

"It seems like this would be a better solution to getting local input," Brenneman said.

John Bourquin, chair of BLUAC, said the proposal seemed like a good idea and that the greater local control is something that would benefit the community.

"I think it's worth looking at," he said.

The elected council could also help create financing for certain projects through taxes or other means. Brenneman gave the example of a situation where Bigfork might want overlay zoning. The council could vote to levy a tax or otherwise authorize payment for an additional staff person at the County Planning and Zoning Office who's sole job would be to oversee that project.

Decisions made by the council would still be subject to approval by the commissioners.

Brenneman said the proposal he's looking at is modified from the law used in Nevada that created townships. Such a law would require passage by the Montana Legislature, and Brenneman said at this point he's purely taking public input and not searching for a legislator to sponsor it.

"Nothing will happen until 2009 for sure, until we know who's been elected" he said. "If the idea still has viability on Nov. 15 then I would very actively start looking for a sponsor."

And if the public isn't interested, neither is Brenneman.

"If, by then, we've discovered a reason not to then we probably won't do much."