Bigfork plan in final stages

By LAURA BEHENNA Bigfork Eagle

As the latest Bigfork Neighborhood Plan is being prepared for submission to the County Planning and Zoning Office and the County Commissioners, community leaders who worked on the plan express pride that the document is a product of the community coming together to voice how they want Bigfork’s future to look.

“I think it’s a great compliment to the community that as many different people from as many different backgrounds worked as hard as they did to make this [plan] come true,” said Don Loranger, who served as chair of the Bigfork Steering Committee in 2006 and who also analyzed the 2005 Community Planning Survey. “Unequivocally it takes into account every view we could get of the citizens of this area.”

It took “countless meetings [and] literally thousands of hours of work” to create the plan, he noted.

“It’s the results of some incredibly long and hard meetings,” long-time Bigfork resident Edd Blackler said. “People have contributed in ways that really bespeak the quality of our residents. If we didn’t lay down some ideas and goals and objectives, the county was going to do it for us.”

“I think we’re sort of looked to as the benchmark for how to do neighborhood plans in the county,” Loranger added.

Loranger also expressed appreciation that the Bigfork Steering Committee and the Bigfork Land Use Advisory Committee, which haven’t always seen eye-to-eye, “worked very cooperatively” to hammer out the plan.

The new plan is “much, much more detailed in content” than the plan that resulted from the first survey that was done in 1993, according to Blackler, who worked on both surveys. “However, it’s remarkable that the general contents are very similar.”

The 1993 survey set out to discover what people wanted the village to look like in the next 10 to 20 years, he said, adding, “We got an incredible response.”

Most of those surveyed wanted the area to stay essentially the way it was, Blackler said. Respondents showed hardly any support for zoning back then but that viewpoint had changed sharply as people have seen the results of unplanned growth since Bigfork has been “discovered.” In fact, the two most strongly supported statements in the 2005 survey were those asserting that community planning and zoning are essential steps “to ensure a positive future for Bigfork,” as the survey was worded.

Clearly, Bigfork residents realized guidelines could help “protect and maintain the character of the community,” Blackler said. What’s frustrating is that the guidelines in a neighborhood plan don’t have the have the power of law and there’s no way to enforce them, he said.

“We can only hope” developers comply with the guidelines offered in the plan, he said. Still, having such a plan in place “removes the element of surprise” for new people who come to the area and purchase property, he added.

“I’d love to think we can trust the common sense of people who come to this community, but there’s just too many diverse ideas out there,” he said.

Basic framework and guidelines are only some of the available tools within the plan. It also contains detailed maps, courtesy of the county GIS department, that highlight floodplains, conservation easements, federal lands and other spots that aren’t suitable for building. There are maps that show aquifers, forests and wildlife habitats too.

The chapter of the plan that addresses land use may still face opposition, BNP team members agreed.

“Some people believe property rights should not be compromised in any way,” Loranger said. That attitude might work for hermits who live up in the North Fork, he said, “but when you’re inundated with people - because you’ve been discovered - it’s different.”

Loranger doesn’t expect strong opposition to the plan, however.

“Mainstream Bigfork will support it because they helped build it,” he said.

Public meetings haven’t been scheduled yet because the county Planning and Zoning Office must look the plan over first and may decide to make some changes, Bourquin said. Representatives of that office may come to Bigfork to discuss the plan with residents at the public meetings, he said. “I think it would have a lot more meaning for the people of Bigfork” if they could talk the plan over with experts, he said. He expects the public meetings to start in March or April.

The county commissioners will have the final word on whether to accept Bigfork’s Neighborhood Plan as it is or with changes. But in either case the plan will still be a “living document” that can be adjusted as community needs change, Loranger said.

The most recent version of the plan will be posted on the BSC Web site, www.bigforksteering.org, after it’s been proofread, team leader Shelley Gonzales said.