No clear path at Lake Co. zoning meeting

After three years of work by a volunteer committee to investigate the possibility of zoning in north Lake County, the community still seems prepared to agree to disagree until more information is available.

Committee chairwoman Leslie Budowitz cautioned the 25 or so residents at the committee's second meeting in as many nights, last Wednesday, that the process was far from a done deal.

"We don't have all the answers; we don't even have all the questions," she said. "We are very serious about wanting your input."

The input given at the meeting was divided, with everyone who spoke up agreeing that Lake County should have as little control as possible over their properties. How such a goal might be achieved, however, was debated.

Brad Reedstrom, who lives on Bug Creek Road south of Ferndale, said that the county's current density zoning was restrictive enough to prevent irresponsible development without being onerous on property owners. He said neighborhoods seeking more restrictive regulations should form homeowners associations and enact covenants.

"Once you create zoning you're in a position where the county commissioners can direct what can and can't happen on your property," he said.

But Bigfork attorney and Swan Valley resident Peter Leander argued just the opposite was the case, saying that zoning chosen by local residents with a local advisory board takes the whims of future county leaders out of the equation.

"If we want to have our decisions followed — pro, con or indifferent — we need to make sure they are codified so they have to be followed," he said.

Leander cited his experience fighting the construction of Kootenai Lodge at the mouth of Swan Lake, a case which was settled out of court last year.

"When we went in front of the commissioners and the planning board time after time, we didn't know what was going to happen," he said. "It's messy the way it is now."

Though it was located in the Swan Sites zoning district, the Kootenai Lodge property was not zoned.

Lake County Commissioner Bill Barron was present at the Wednesday night meeting — he was also in attendance at the Tuesday night meeting at Bigfork's Bethany Lutheran Church — and said that the commissioners were neutral on the formation of a North Lake County zoning district until the decision comes before them.

Barron did cite a pattern he had noticed across the county in which law enforcement responded to fewer spats between neighbors in zoned areas where rules were spelled out.

"In zoned areas you don't have as many arguments," he said. "In unzoned you have people literally shooting at each other."

Barron also advised residents that the time to get involved in the decision of whether or not to support a zoning district was right now, rather than when the issue eventually winds up in Polson at the hands of the county planning board or the commissioners.

Barron also said that when the time comes for the commissioners to make a decision, he would need to see a clear-cut majority to cast his vote in favor.

"Personally, it would take a lot more than 50-50," he said.

Committee member Pat Smith said the timeline for the committee's next moves would include spending the fall and winter trying to finalize ideas for how to create a local advisory board — a concept widely used around Flathead and Missoula counties, but not implemented in Lake County — and then putting together a draft of potential regulations to be presented to the community at more large-scale public meetings next year.

Smith, as well as Budowitz and other committee members, encouraged any interested citizens to attend the committee's regular meetings, which occur on the first and third Thursdays of each month at 9:15 a.m. at the Saddlehorn building in Bigfork. The committee's next meeting is Aug. 7, and they will not reconvene until Oct. 16, at which time they will return to their regular schedule.

More information about the North Lake County Planning and Zoning Committee, as well as maps and other documentation, is available online at www.bigforksteering.org under the North Lake County tab.