Board reviews Lakeside Neighborhood Plan

The Flathead County Planning Board decided to go ahead with a review of the Lakeside Neighborhood Plan last week, a step that continues to move the plan forward even with a pending lawsuit and injunction to stop it.

County attorney Jonathan Smith told the board at a meeting earlier this year it was its job to consider the content of the plan and let the courts decide the legality of the procedures.

Board member Jeff Larsen was not present at the meeting, but sent a letter stating he believes the Lakeside plan process was not in compliance with Montana State Law. He wrote that participating in the Oct. 7 review would be going against his public oath.

His advice, according to the letter, was to wait until the legal issues are resolved before proceeding.

Charles Lapp, who was present and participated in the review, also raised concerns about the plan's process and whether the board should proceed. Much of the controversy surrounds a members-only Yahoo Web site the Lakeside Neighborhood Planning Committee used to conduct business as the planning process progressed.

Member Michael Mower was also absent, but for medical reasons.

At the session, the board went page by page through the 157-page plan giving suggestions and revisions. This informal review gives the committee feedback before the plan enters the formal review process.

Board Chairman Gordon Cross suggested that the plan not discourage commercial construction on the corridor of U.S. Highway 93 outright, because it would be ineffective to achieve its aims, but should try to mitigate that construction. The same concern was raised over discouraging PUDs on the lakefront and industrial construction.

"I think it's better when you focus on ways to mitigate," Cross said.

Cross said the language in the plan's future land use designations needs to be more vague and flexible, rather than creating mandates. This would make it easier to adjust later when it comes time for the actual zoning process, he said.

Cross also questioned why the map did not include any industrial areas and suggested that it should.

Debbie Spaulding, chairperson of the Lakeside Neighborhood Plan Committee, said the surveys the committee collected indicated the majority of people in Lakeside are in favor of zoning. If the plan is approved, it will become the first step toward zoning.

Plan supporters said the future land use map reflects the maximum density locals would be comfortable with in those areas and Cross recommended that language that allowed for that be included.

Board members also raised concerns about areas of the plan that talked about the 'small town character" of Lakeside and the difficulty in quantifying that and deciding who gets to define it.

Board member Marc Pitman questioned why the plan did not include considering incorporation in the future.

Plan supporters said that incorporation had been looked at several times in the past. Pitman advised the committee to include in the plan that it had been looked at and what criteria would have to be met if the city decided to do pursue it.

The board also suggested the committee take a look at the county's upcoming transportation study and to see that projects in the Lakeside area that are included in the plan are on the study's list.

Jeff Harris, director of Flathead County Planning & Zoning, offered to meet with the committee to go over the structure of the plan document itself at a later date to make it easier to use for planners and the public. Harris also offered to go through the transportation plan as well as a new type of zoning that the committee might find useful.

The Lakeside Neighborhood Plan Committee intended to go over the board's revisions at a meeting Monday. Once the committee's work is completed, the plan will go back before the board for the formal review process.

The Flathead County Planning Board was also scheduled to look at procedures for new neighborhoods plan Wednesday night. These procedures will be relevant for Somers, which is in the process of developing a neighborhood plan for the first time. The Lakeside plan is a revision of a 1995 plan.

For more information on the Lakeside Neighborhood Plan, visit lakesideplan2008.com. The full plan is also available on the Flathead County Web site at http://flathead.mt.gov/planning_zoning/Drafts.php.