At end of June, city will lose its ‘doughnut’

An aerial view of prime real estate east of the river in this file photo.

| May 22, 2024 6:55 AM

The doughnut will soon be no more. The Columbia Falls City Council recently learned that by the end of June, the city will no longer have extraterritorial planning jurisdiction in the county, commonly referred to as the “doughnut.”

The doughnut was a contested subject last year when developers proposed large subdivisions east of the Flathead River. Some folks who lived outside the city limits saw it as unfair that the city had a say in the proposed developments, because they couldn’t vote for city officials.

The jurisdiction, roughly a mile from the city limits, also extended north to Meadow Lake Resort, where controversy ensued last year as well with subdivision plans in that neighborhood.

Now developments outside the city limits will be under purview of the Flathead County Planning Department with one caveat — if a developer asks for city services and annexation, then the project would still be governed by the city, but which board — the new city commission or the existing city-county planning board isn’t entirely clear at this point.

City manager Susan Nicosia said recently the city was consulting with the state Department of Commerce on that issue.

Columbia Falls was only one of two cities in the state that still had extraterritorial jurisdiction in all of Montana.

The city’s jurisdiction was actually supposed to be dissolved last August, city attorney Justin Breck told council, but the county asked for an extension to the end of June to prepare for the change.

The changes come as a result of Senate Bill 382, which has forced the city to change the way it does future land use planning. As a result of that bill, the city doesn’t get extraterritorial jurisdiction.

Right now, the city isn’t seeing much in new housing developments, as the market has cooled a bit with higher interest rates. Thirty-year mortgage rates are running 7.77% as of this writing, with 15-year rates running 6.82%.