North Fork plan will see some revisions

By CHRIS PETERSON / Hungry Horse News

Line by line. Page by page. In a nearly three-hour long meeting, the Flathead County Planning Board had a give and take session with North Forkers on their neighborhood plan last Wednesday.

The conversation was a civil affair and in the end, it looks like the plan will see some tweaking, but not a major overhaul.

Part of the conversation centered on whether the plan is regulatory or advisory. Neighborhood plans, by design, are supposed to be a framework for zoning. The intent was to make them advisory and then having zoning that followed their direction.

But a recent Montana Supreme Court decision interpreted Flathead County's neighborhood plans as regulatory — saying, in short, that if a neighborhood plan was more stringent than the zoning, then the county had to follow the neighborhood plan.

That throws the North Fork Neighborhood Plan for a loop in some instances, because the neighborhood plan has some subjective language — particularly when it comes to commercial development.

For example, one section says, "There should be no commercial venture that would create a negative visual, auditory or olfactory impact."

That section was tough for planning board members to stomach, particularly if the plan were to become regulatory.

The county is working on text amendments to its zoning that would revert neighborhood plans back to their intended advisory state, but how long that will take — particularly since legal action could very well come on the heels of such a move — was in doubt.

North Forker's explained much of the subjective language in the plan. They noted that in many cases, it was intended to be broad and far reaching to maintain the rural way of life in the North Fork. For example, the plan says that no "new subdivision should create lot sizes under 20 acres."

But Planning Board member Gene Dziza noted that most North Fork residents live on lot sizes that are smaller than 20 acres already.

North Forkers explained that at the time the language was written, it was an attempt to prevent further sprawl in the area.

Even with the 20-acre limit, the North Fork could see 288 additional lots, North Forker Molly Shepherd noted.

In the end, Dziza conceded the 20-acre limit was acceptable, considering the North Fork's remote location and the fact that it's on what amounts to a dead end road and has no services whatsoever.

The board also took issue with other provisions of the plan, such as not expanding utilities and a section that calls for no new commercial rafting on the river.

While commercial rafting on the river is currently under a moratorium, the Planning Board thought the blanket language was too harsh — considering that the county's growth policy actually calls for more public access to rivers and streams, not less.

On the utility expansion, the blanket approach didn't seem to fit either, Planning Board members noted. What if someone wanted to install a small sewage system for Polebridge where housing density is comparatively high? Under this plan, it couldn't happen, they noted.

Planners and North Forkers also touched on the road itself.

Resident Jerry Wernick said the plan was avoiding the "800-pound gorilla" by not including the road, but most folks didn't seem to agree.

To pave or not pave the road has been a divisive issue for years and folks noted that rather than argue about it ad nauseam, it was best to center on what they could agree on with this plan.

In the end, the plan will likely see some revisions. County Planner Andrew Hegemeier said from his end, revisions could be completed as early as mid-March, but that really depends on how soon the North Fork Land Use Advisory Committee, which created the draft, wants to make its revisions.

State law requires that neighborhood plans comply with the county's growth policy, Hegemeier noted, but the law doesn't set a time frame for that compliance.