County to continue talks next week

The Flathead County commissioners spent well over two hours on Thursday poring over the details of a citizen-initiated corridor plan for U.S. 93 south of Whitefish, and have set aside two days next week for continued discussion.

The commissioners will meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 3-4, to talk more about the plan before voting on a resolution of intent to adopt a proposed overlay zone and accompanying zone changes aimed at creating more flexibility in how property owners along the highway can use their property.

The overlay zone includes 1.5 miles of the highway corridor south of the intersection of U.S. 93 and Montana 40. The proposal also includes the rezoning of 490 acres to include various levels of commercial zoning.

There are 40 findings of fact to consider for the two-pronged corridor plan, and the commissioners made it almost halfway through during Thursday’s discussion, county Planning Director Mark Mussman said.

“Once they’ve gone through the findings, then they’ll consider their suggested changes,” Mussman said.

He will compile a list of proposed changes that most likely will be presented to the commissioners on Wednesday morning.

“Then we’ll have some clean findings they can go through again,” Mussman said. “If they adopt those, then they’ll [vote on adopting] the resolution of intent.”

Mussman said there may be five additional findings added to the corridor plan.

“A couple of new findings will address public comments and will consider the existing pattern of development, he added.

Though the commissioners’ initial discussion seemed tedious at times, Mussman said it was mentioned several times “you can never get in trouble by talking about something too much.”

Of particular interest to property owners in the corridor area is what zoning will be applied to the high-traffic junction of U.S. 93 and Montana 40. Right now the plan calls for secondary business zoning at the high-profile intersection, a designation that would allow uses such as convenience stores and gas stations that typically are open long hours with bright lighting and lots of in-and-out traffic.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.