Group sues to block green belt zoning

A court challenge was recently filed in Flathead County District Court to stop the creation of a new greenbelt zone on 64 acres along U.S. 93 between Kalispell and Whitefish.

Citizens for a Better Flathead and county resident Sharon DeMeester also seek to remove the B-2HG general-business highway-greenbelt zoning classification from the county's zoning regulations, which was approved by the county commissioners on July 27, 2011. District Court Judge Stewart Stadler set a show-cause hearing on the matter for Feb. 2 at 8:30 a.m.

In the Columbia Falls area, the zoning classification could be applied to U.S. 2 and Montana Highways 40 and 206, but much of that land is currently unzoned. The new classification does not affect properties regulated by the Canyon and North Fork neighborhood plans and does not apply to properties within the Columbia Falls two-mile planning and zoning jurisdiction.

The court challenge claims the B-2HG zone is inconsistent with the county growth policy. Mayre Flowers, executive director of Citizens for a Better Flathead, says the growth policy calls for limiting strip commercial development between towns and emphasizes the need to direct growth toward existing town centers.

DeMeester spearheaded the legal challenge that led to the redesign of the Glacier Town Center shopping mall proposed for a site north of Kalispell. She said opening the door to strip development with the B-2HG zone "is a recipe for turning the Flathead into an unappealing, ‘Anywhere USA' hodgepodge of strip development."

The county received 881 protests to the resolution to create the zone, but not all were from qualified property owners. State law calls for protests from 40 percent of qualified property owners to stop the county commissioners from creating the new zoning district, in this case about 2,800 people.