Density map, regulations should be retained
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
Editor,
After a lengthy meeting at the courthouse last Wednesday, April 11, the county planning board voted 6-4 in favor of retaining the Lake County Density Map and Regulations (DMR) – in opposition to the county commissioners’ stated intent to repeal both, and then add the map to the growth policy as an advisory document. Without its regulatory teeth, the so-called Appendix C would be denuded of any enforcement requirement.
Part of the commissioners’ rationale is that the regulations are “indefensible in court.” However, the DMR has never been legally challenged and, according to a member of the planning board last week, the few requests for variance that have been made to the Board of Adjustments since the DMR was adopted 13 years ago were granted or otherwise resolved.
The DMR does not dictate land use, it just articulates what lot density is available in rural areas – the closer to town, the more developed an area can be. And because the DMR is regulatory instead of advisory, prospective property buyers, as well as developers, know the rules before they invest. Make sense? I think so – and so do most members of the county’s planning board.
The commissioners tried to repeal the density map in 2016; a move that failed 2-1, with Gale Decker the lone vote in favor. Why are they at it again?
It’s no secret that Lake County has financial woes, but repealing a valuable planning tool is not a panacea. A better approach – the one advocated by most members of the planning board – is to update and tweak the DMR (something that was supposed to happen every five years), and make sure it’s compatible with current state planning and subdivision regulations. At the same time, our commissioners should be working to forge a Memorandum of Understanding with tribal government – which appears to share the goals outlined by the DMR.
If you share concerns about the future of the Density Map, please write the commissioners, lakecommissioners@lakemt. gov, call 883-7204, or show up at the public meeting, 2 p.m. April 24, room 211 of the Lake County Courthouse where, it appears, a final decision will be made.
In a congested world our valley remains a rare and spacious place, in part because of this farsighted map. Let’s keep it that way.
Kristi Niemeyer
Polson
