Planning board, development code confusion addressed
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It has come to my attention that there is some confusion around the City-County Planning Board and the Polson Development Code re-write. I would like to provide some information to hopefully offer some insight on the history of this committee, the current status, and the considerations that are now being evaluated for the future of this committee and the pending development code.
The current process, structure and responsibilities of our City-County Planning Board are not unlike other communities similar to ours. This board, which has been in existence in our community for decades, is comprised of four representatives appointed by and representing the city, four representatives appointed by and representing the county, and a ninth member of the board being appointed by the Lake County Conservation District. It is a balanced board with equal representation.
The board is responsible for reviewing development applications, long range planning, and making recommendations to the applicable party – either the City Commission if the property falls within the city, or the County Commissioners if the property falls within the county. County property decisions are not acted upon by the City Commission, and vice versa; city property decisions are not acted upon by the county. The process works like this:
When a development application is received on a property within the city limits, the city planner administers the review (including pre-application, legal notice, staff report and recommendations). The City County Planning Board would then hold a public hearing, review all the information, and make a recommendation to the City Commission to approve or not.
When a development application is received in the county area, the county planner administers the review process. The City-County Planning Board in this case would still hold a public hearing and review all the information, but would make their recommendation to the County Commissioners to approve the development application or not.
Both the current development code and the new proposed development code maintain that same process. We are all still responsible for our own areas.
The current development code was approved in 1994 and is outdated. We need to update this document to come into compliance with Montana codes that have been revised by the Montana Legislature throughout the years. An oversight committee made up of city and county officials, members of the development community, and local citizens have been working with Dave DeGrandpre of Land Solutions, LLC since 2009 to bring this document up to date. In addition to recognizing changing Montana code, this group has also taken our community’s specific needs into account, and has come up with a draft that is close to being presented to both the City Commission and the County Commissioners. Recently the City-County Planning Board held five work sessions to review the draft and has asked for additional changes before moving onto the public hearing stage. Moving forward, there would then be public hearings on the proposed development code, likely some adjustments, and then ultimately final approval.
One of the proposed changes within the draft development code was to increase the land that is considered in the donut area north of the current city boundary. The City-County Planning Board knew this would be a contentious issue, and had specific open meetings to take public comment on this topic. The input was overwhelmingly opposed to this change, and thus the board decided to remove it from the draft plan. This is a great example of the process working. While it was something to be considered, as it turned out, there was not a strong enough reason to make this change and thus it was left out of the proposed draft plan.
Due to the strong response to this detail, there is now a plan to review the City-County Planning Board as a whole, and potentially make changes to the structure and process moving forward. The city is not opposed to this review taking place. Certainly there are pros and cons to every situation and we should make sure we review our structures and processes on an ongoing basis to make sure they fit our needs.
We are now taking the development code rewrite off the table for this time period while we focus on the current structure and process of the City-County Planning Board as it now exists. The County Commissioners will be holding public hearings on this topic in the coming weeks, and we encourage you to provide your perspectives on the topic.
If it is decided that the City-County Planning Board will remain in existence, the draft development code will then be presented to both the City and the County to be reviewed. Both organizations will have the appropriate public hearings on the document as a whole, adjustments will be made to it as needed, then the document will be adopted and implemented.
If it is decided that the City-County Planning Board will be dissolved, then the next steps for the city will be to pass a resolution for a City Planning Board to be in existence, then make the necessary changes to the draft development code to remove any county-related details. Once that is done, we would proceed with the appropriate public hearings on the document, make adjustments as needed, then adopt and implement the new, up-to-date development code.
On behalf of the city, we appreciate all of the time and effort that has been given by the many people who have been closely involved with this process for the past five years. This is a very important code to guide the development of our area, and this is why we have stayed committed to the process. Certainly there are details that may need to be discussed and/or altered, but we think the balanced group that has driven this process has represented our community well.
We are prepared to respond to whichever path this takes, and will look towards moving forward once we know the direction.
