BLUAC passes plan amid little fanfare

After four years and nearly 100 public meetings, the Bigfork Land Use Advisory Committee unanimously recommended approval to the county planning board concerning the Bigfork Neighborhood Plan. When the floor was opened for public comment for this meeting, the proverbial crickets could be heard chirping.

The BLUAC board attended a workshop with the Flathead County Planning Board in December to go through the plan page by page and then adopted the suggested fixes into the draft at BLUAC’s Jan. 5 meeting in Bigfork.

For Thursday’s hearing — the last local hearing to be conducted on the plan — no one offered public comment.

Next, the plan will be heard at a public hearing before the planning board on Feb. 11 at 6 p.m. in the Earl Bennett Building in Kalispell. Assuming the plan is passed the Flathead County Commissioners will hold a hearing and make a final ruling on whether to adopt it at a to-be-determined time.

Though the committee was pleased to finally be sending the plan off to the final stages — they clapped after voting 6-0 in favor of doing so — chairperson Shelley Gonzales issued a stark caution: “We’ve been here before.”

Last July the plan was approved by BLUAC and sent to a planning board workshop session, but the planning board decided to put it on hold indefinitely pending a decision by the commissioners concerning a passage of language in the zoning regulations.

In other business at the meeting, the committee discussed potential changes to the BLUAC bylaws. The committee decided last year that an annual review of the bylaws should take place to ensure that they were still accurate and clear.

Though no changes were voted on, much of the discussion revolved around rewriting language to ensure that the appointed committee secretary/treasurer — currently Sue Hanson — is not exposed to undo liability by using regulatory language to describe the position’s duties. The committee decided to table any changes until it could be determined with Flathead County whether the county’s liability coverage extended to the secretary position.

The committee also voted to draft a letter of support to House District 9 Representative Scott Reichner in support of the Village Self Determination Bill, a proposal being pushed by commissioner Joe Brenneman that would give unincorporated places like Bigfork more autonomy, and potential for more tax burdens. The Lakeside Community Council drafted a similar letter of support for their representative last week.