Consultant finds growth plan lacking

By WILLIAM L. SPENCE

The Daily Inter Lake

A $30,000 consultant report politely trashed Flathead County's draft growth policy, saying the document fails to offer a clear vision for the future of the valley.

The report was written by Collins Planning Associates of Jackson, Wyo.

The company was hired last year to help produce the new growth policy. However, its role - and fee - were substantially reduced after it became clear that most of the work would be done in-house, by the Flathead County Planning Office.

While acknowledging the difficulty of land-use planning in the Flathead - where the philosophical debate about when and how to regulate growth continues unabated - Collins concluded the draft policy "failed to seek a consensus on the types of strategies [goals, policies and regulations] that would best respect the competing views of the land as a public resource versus a private commodity."

"It's hard to consider the draft as a policy plan to guide Flathead County's future," the report said. "At best, it reads more as a scoping document that identifies issues and provides a long list of good ideas that should be pursued. Nowhere is there a clear vision or plan for the future of the county. If asked to review a development proposal for conformance to the plan, one could find goals/policies to support approval or denial by shopping around for suitable quotes.

"Failure to come to grips with the regulatory issue, or even starting to identify a group of strategies that should be used to implement any of the difficult goals, results in no clear direction for addressing Flathead County's significant challenges."

Many of the comments in the 10-page report were critical of the level of details supplied in the draft policy. For example, Collins cited the lack of land-use maps that outline how much commercial, industrial or residential development already exists in the valley or how much new development it can handle in the future.

"Information is lacking on how much growth the county can handle or desires to handle, in terms of infrastructure capacities, community character, environmental thresholds like water quality, or other paradigms," the report noted. "There is not even an approximation of existing land uses, an absolute essential starting point for planning."

In a one-page response, the county planning office said the consultant missed the point.

"While it is accurate to say the draft lacks extensive, detailed, site- and topic-specific plans, the document was never intended to incorporate all aspects [of land-use planning] at the time of adoption," the memo noted. "The intent is to create a planning framework, setting the stage for future detailed plans that will be appended to the growth policy.

"By calling for individual studies, plans and regulatory techniques to be developed over time - while still providing immediate conceptual guidance on a large, countywide scale - the draft establishes a realistic agenda for growth management in Flathead County."

Among other criticisms, Collins stated the draft should have contained more detailed housing projections and affordability comparisons; socio-economic profiles of new residents; level of service and demographic requirements for future parkland; non-residential land-use projections and location preferences; plans for coordinating road construction and development patterns; trend estimates of future school populations, landfill demand, and emergency services needs; documentation regarding the impacts various land uses have on pollution, flooding and water quality; and a complete analysis of the different implementation strategies that could be used to achieve the different goals.

"Until this type of effort is undertaken," the report concludes, "the planning effort will continue to be an exercise with no meaningful prospect of having an effect."

Collins typically works for communities that allocate substantially more money and resources to their growth plans than Flathead County was willing to do.

The planning office noted that much of the information, detailed studies and plans that Collins wants to see is already called for by the growth policy. However, because of a looming Oct. 1 deadline, most of it is scheduled for completion over the next several years.

Given the turnover in the planning office in the last 18 months - including in the director's position - as well as the huge surge in planning applications, a minuscule budget, previous flawed efforts to update the growth policy, and uncertain political and community support for strong land-use regulations, the staff felt it was doing well just to produce a middle-of-the-road framework policy that stands a chance of being adopted this year.

Collins noted that, of the 228 policies proposed in the draft, more than 100 require the planning office to do additional work.

"But there is no priority among these items," the report said. "Perhaps criteria could be developed that rank the policies and future work assignments."

Collins initially signed a $60,000 contract to help with the growth policy. The company agreed to reduce that to $30,000 after the planning office took on most of the work.

Copies of the consultant's report and the planning office's response have been provided to the Flathead County Planning Board and county commissioners for review. They're also available on the planning office Web site, at www.co.flathead.mt.us/fcpz/growthpolicy.html