City OKs shrunken planning boundaries
Hungry Horse News
With little discussion, the Columbia Falls City Council approved a new interlocal agreement with the county Monday that will usher in a new era of planning and zoning for the city.
But news that Whitefish is likely to withdraw from the Tri-City Planning Office by June 30 next year means Columbia Falls could be left without planning services.
In the nine months since the county brought the proposal to the city, boundaries have shifted but the basic idea has remained-the city's planning jurisdiction would shrink from 4 1/2 miles to about 1 mile and the city would gain subdivision and flood plain review over development inside the new boundary.
"I want to point out one important aspect of this," City Manager Bill Shaw said. "We will have complete planning authority in this area-nothing will go before the county commissioners."
Mayor Susan Nicosia noted that the commissioners will continue to appoint four members of the Columbia Falls City-County Planning Board, which will review development proposals before they come before the city council.
The new planning jurisdiction extends beyond the city's existing one-mile zoning jurisdiction west to just past the U.S. Highway 2-Highway 40 intersection, including the north half of Meadow Lake Resort and the Hilltop Terrace subdivision, areas that are not currently zoned.
It also includes land south of the city and across the Flathead River, but not land east of city and across the river, including 80 acres of land owned by the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. It also includes a large tract of land north of the city-the aluminum plant itself, some National Forest land and the city's Cedar Creek Reservoir.
The city's growth policy, which must be completed by 2006, will be confined to the area within the new boundaries, Shaw said.
City councilmember Tad Rosenberry asked Tri-City Planning Office director Tom Jentz if the growth policy will be completed before June 30, when Whitefish's withdrawal could spell the end of the office.
Jentz didn't have a definite answer for them, but he said the growth policy will be tweaked to fit the new planning jurisdiction.
Shaw said the city is currently paying Tri-City about $27,000 a year for services. The planning office is also paid through fees from developers. If Tri-City dissolves, Columbia Falls might need to hire a consultant, but it would certainly lose the advantages of having five expert planners in one office, as it had with Tri-City, Shaw said.
"We'd also lose a lot of institutional memory," he said.
The city could also lose its building inspector if Whitefish goes on its own, Shaw said. The city currently contracts with Whitefish's building inspection office for services.