County withdraws idea of billboards in scenic corridors

Flathead County Commissioners Thursday agreed to nix the idea of allowing billboard-sized signs in scenic highway corridors before a public hearing could even begin.

The changes to the sign regulations, which have been on the books for more than 30 years, were met with stiff opposition from the public. If implemented, they could have allowed nearly billboard-sized signs along highways like U.S. Highway 2 en route to Glacier National Park and U.S. Highway 93 from Whitefish west to Lincoln County and Montana 40.

The sign changes were part of broader changes in the county’s zoning regulations.

“The vast majority (of comments) dealt with changes to the scenic corridor section,” Mussman told commissioners.

Commissioners, in turn agreed the regulations should not be changed, though they took no formal action on the matter.

The proposed zoning changes would have allowed off-premise signs up to 150 square feet in size.

Mussman claimed the changes were made in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling governing political signs, but after speaking with planning staff from Whitefish, it was determined that the court ruling apparently did not address commercial signs.

“Thanks to everyone who emailed us. We got a bunch of them,” county Commissioner Phil Mitchell said.

Commissioners did, however, respond to charges that the sign regulation changes were a last-minute item. They noted the county planning board went over the changes in September and October.

But resident Mayre Flowers, who attended those meetings, said no one from the public was allowed to speak.

The public hearing went on anyway, with several people speaking out against the sign regulation changes.

Elsa Putzier, a longtime real estate agent in the valley, read a letter from Bill Dakin. Dakin, himself a longtime real estate broker in Columbia Falls, sat on the planning board decades ago when the sign regulations were first crafted.

He noted in his letter that one of the more notable accomplishments of the planning board at the time was the preservation of the scenic corridor.

“Commerce in no way has suffered from it,” Dakin’s letter noted.

Erica Wirtala, the public affairs director the Northwest Montana Association of Realtors also spoke out against changes in the sign regulations.

“We sell the viewshed everyday,” she told commissioners.

NMAR has more than 900 members, she noted.

There was one concern however. Lana Batts of the West Shore Community Library in Lakeside said that under the current regulations, the library can’t even have a small sign on Highway 93. The library sits about 500 feet from the road.

She asked commissioners if there was anything they could do to help the library, which is not part of the county’s ImagineIF library system and thus, cannot have its own sign near the road.

Commissioners said she should consult with the county’s planning staff.