Long Range Planning subcommittee to hold Monday lunch meeting

By MIKE RICHESON

Bigfork Eagle

The Long Range Planning subcommittee will hold another community meeting on Feb. 19 at noon in the Bethany Lutheran Church basement. This will be the sixth meeting of its kind.

Community members have been gathering to discuss ideas about how to shape Bigfork for the coming decades. Everything from parking to public education has been discussed.

The committee has broken the Bigfork area into four main sections: the downtown village, the Highway 35 corridor, the immediate residential neighborhoods and the rural residences. An idea that seems to have some momentum would link these four sections together by a network of walking/biking paths.

And the first big project for the group will be to design a brochure with photos and descriptions of desirable amenities and features that will define the community of Bigfork.

The booklet would highlight architectural and design features that reflect the community of Bigfork and help guide future development to maintain the community’s character.

Committee chairman Edd Blackler said the brochure would be a useful tool for the Bigfork Land Use Advisory Committee to pass on to would-be developers. Although the draft Bigfork Neighborhood Plan addresses development guidelines, there really isn’t an agency to enforce mandated policies in the plan.

“This is a gentle way to form ideas and create guidelines,” Blackler said.

The meeting on Monday will primarily focus on beginning the brochure, but Blackler said the meetings are totally open so people can feel free to present any of their ideas. The meeting will be a “brown bag” affair during the typical lunch hour. Please use the Bridge Street entrance to enter Bethany Lutheran.

Blackler said he would like people to begin bringing photos and descriptions to the meetings, or they can send them to him by mail at P.O. Box 555, Bigfork, MT.