Zoning workshop for old Columbia Falls doughnut is next week
An aerial view of the Flathead River recently. Keeping the Flathead's waters pristine is a priority as growth continues to bring more people to the Flathead Valley.
By CHRIS PETERSON
Hungry Horse News
The Flathead County Planning Board will have a Columbia Falls rural zoning workshop at 6 p.m. Sept. 11 at the Flathead County Fairgrounds Trade Center Building.
The meeting is the first to discuss with the public the future of zoning in the former Columbia Falls “doughnut.”
The doughnut was a 1-2 mile buffer of land that surrounded the city where it used to have planning jurisdiction. But the Montana Land Use Planning Act dissolved the jurisdiction and reverted it back to the county.
Now the county is taking a closer look at the zoning in the area, which includes lands east of the Flathead River just outside of the city limits as well as lands to the north of the city and perhaps most importantly, lands to the west which extend to the Blue Moon and a bit beyond.
The county over the next year or so is expected to craft new zoning regulations for those parcels.
Under the Land Use Planning Act, the city would only have a say in the zoning and potential development of those lands if a developer asked for extension of city services such as sewer and water.
Currently the county has adopted an interim zoning for the lands that largely mirrors what was already in place when the city had jurisdiction of the area.