Commission takes up public input plan

The Columbia Falls Planning Commission took its first look at a public participation plan last week. The plan is part of the city coming into compliance with the Montana Land Use Planning Act, which was passed by the state Legislature last year.

While the Act does away the city’s “doughnut” an agreement between the city and Flathead County that allows city planning beyond its boundaries, the city will still create development plans beyond its boundaries anyway, as developers seeking to build housing there are likely to ask for city sewer and water services, and with that comes annexation.

Last week’s meeting was a stark reminder of the state of planning in and around Columbia Falls. There is the city, which is looking to serve high density development, and neighbors who live just outside the city limits who worry about how high density development will impact them.

In fact, nearly all of the dozen or so residents who attended last week’s meeting lived outside the city limits.

Public participation under the Act is paramount to future planning, too. The Land Use Planning Act frontloads the public input and public  comment into the land use plans.

The city planning commission isn’t trying to write its own plan. It’s using Kalispell and Helena’s as models for its plan, with some tweaks.

“The current process tends to drive public comment towards individual projects around the city. This can create tension as different visions for an area collide. The intent of the Land Use Planning Act is to drive public comment towards the land use planning phase to ensure that projects that come in have already been well-considered in the land use planning process,” Helena’s plan notes. 

But critics in the audience noted that sometimes it’s hard to comment on a project until the plans are actually laid out. For example, a parcel might be zoned for high density development, but a developer’s plan may be untenable to neighbors once the proverbial rubber meets the road. That happened time and time again as developers brought forth plans for high density development just east of the Flathead River in Columbia Falls.

The city will look at annexations that could occur in the next 20 years.

The reality is the city could look much different sooner than that. Developer Mick Ruis has plans for a housing and commercial development north of the city on 2,400 acres of Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. land.

While the Ruis plan wasn’t a direct topic of discussion, if that development actually comes to fruition, the city would almost triple in size, as the city is currently about 2.2 square miles. Twenty-four hundred acres is 3.75 square miles alone, nevermind any development that does, or doesn’t come east of the river or west of the city.

At the meeting, the question arose on whether those that lived outside the city’s limits had a say in the city’s decisions or plans. The answer was there was no distinction on where they lived — public comment was public comment, the state Constitution doesn’t differentiate.

“The public is the public, it doesn’t matter where you live,” noted city planner Eric Mulcahy.

Having said that, Mulcahy also noted that city expansion and annexation usually comes with high density housing development, because developers can’t afford to hook city sewer and water services to lower density lots. It’s simply too expensive for most home buyers.

After about an hour and a half of open discussion with the public and city staff, the commission  settled on a public participation plan that was a blend of Kalispell’s and Helena’s.

The commission agreed they wanted the process to be open to the public — no matter where they lived.

City staff will now craft a public participation plan and a public hearing will be held on the final plan 6 p.m. Thursday May 6 at city hall. The Columbia Falls City Council has final say in the plan.