Tag Archives: North Fork Land Use Advisory Committee

Alert: North Fork Land use planning needs your help!

Action Alerts

Happy Fall dear NFPA members!

If you are an NFPA member and a landowner, this call is to you! If you’re a member and not a landowner, feel free to familiarize yourself with the material (below) and write some letter to our commissioners anyways! Thanks for all your support, today and always…

It’s time for North Fork Landowners to get our revised zoning Text Amendment across the finish line with the County Commissioners! The North Fook Land Use Advisory Committee (NFLUAC) needs your help!

WHY IT MATTERS:

Many of you have previously written extremely helpful letters of support for the Text Amendment.  We understand there is “planning fatigue”, but we need you to rally yourselves one last time and submit letters of support! Personalized letters pack the biggest punch, especially if they say WHY this matters to you:

  • Do you have a personal story about how you’ve been, or in the future may be, negatively affected if the zoning is NOT updated?
  • Are you concerned because our zoning is decades out of date and doesn’t meet current growth needs?
  • Are you concerned because our original zoning is sometimes confusing or ambiguous and leads to conflict within the community?

Please send a letter of support to the County Commissioners before the November 1, 2022 hearing, the earlier the better to ensure it is received and read. Their email addresses are: babell@flathead.mt.gov; pholmquist@flathead.mt.gov and rbrodehl@flathead.mt.gov.  The physical address is: 800 S. Main, Kalispell MT  59901.   If you’re not up to letter writing, you can submit a comment here: cocontactus@flathead.mt.gov.    The County Commissioner’s hearing is set for November 1, 2022 at 09:00, third floor of the courthouse.

WANT MORE INFORMATION?

A brief Summary of the Text Amendment, the Text Amendment itself and our letter to the Commissioners are linked below.  Italicized portions of the Text Amendment are those which are unchanged from the existing regulations.

Thanks again for taking the time to participate in the future of the North Fork!

Cheers and larch needles,

Flannery Coats Freund
NFPA President

Document links:
North Fork Zoning Text Amendment Overview
NFLUAC Commissioner Letter Oct 2022
NFLUAC Text amendment with italics Oct 5 2022

Support North Fork land use planning updates!

Action Alerts,

Dear friends and supporters of preserving the North Fork,

 

July was a busy month for us to say the least! Upon the heels of a fabulous, amazing, and historical 40th Annual Meeting, as well as the most epic Polebridge Bear Fair, Flathead County has put NFLUAC on the agenda for their planning meeting on Wednesday, August 10th at 6pm (in person or zoom). Attendance and/or comments to support the recommended text amendment from you all are essential to keeping the North Fork ecosystem intact. I’m passing on the details from our friend and NFLUAC Chair, Randy Kenyon, to encourage each and every one of you to participate in this process. 

 

Thanks for your continued support and good energy!

 

Flannery Freund

NFPA President

Continue reading Support North Fork land use planning updates! →

Larry Wilson: Seeking common ground

Commentary,

Larry addresses the importance of unity in diversity when it comes to land planning and other broad community issues . . .

This week at the invitation of the Swan Valley Community organization, I traveled with Mark Shiltz, Montana Land Reliance staffer, to speak to that community about how the North Fork got involved in land-use planning.

Although we see the results of that effort every day – we now have minimum lot sizes, setbacks, interlocal meetings and other improvements – I had not thought about how it all got started for years. There aren’t many of us left from those beginnings, and I think they’re worth recalling.

Continue reading . . .

County commissioners reject North Fork zoning change

News, ,

The Daily Inter Lake posted a surprisingly lengthy report on Monday’s county commissioner’s decision to reject the North Fork zoning “text amendment” . . .

Agreeing it posed undo restrictions on private property rights, the Flathead County commissioners on Monday unanimously rejected a text amendment that would have banned temporary structures in the North Fork Zoning District’s 150-setback from public roads and bodies of water.

The North Fork Land Use Advisory Committee had asked for a zoning text amendment that would require temporary structures to abide by designated setbacks. The amendment also would have provided a definition for temporary structures.

Continue reading . . .

Planning board supports North Fork setback language adjustment

News, , ,

This brief mention in today’s Daily Inter Lake belies a lot of work by the North Fork Land Use Advisory Committee . . .

Prohibiting temporary structures from the setback area in the North Fork got a positive recommendation from the Flathead County Planning Board Wednesday night.

The vote was 4-3 in favor of approval.

The North Fork setback text amendments pertained to the 150-foot setback and gave a definition for a temporary structure.

For more background, read the full article . . .

Flathead County Planning Board recommends extraction limits in North Fork

Environmental Issues, News, , , ,

From today’s Daily Inter Lake . . .

The Flathead County Planning Board last week recommended limiting the size of extractive industries in the North Fork, but took pains to disassociate itself from a much-publicized memorandum of understanding between Gov. Brian Schweitzer and British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell.

That memorandum, signed earlier this year, calls for a ban on mining in the North Fork of the Flathead River in the United States and Canada.

Current county regulations require extractive industries in the North Fork Zoning District be of a “small scale,” but it is undefined and has not been implemented.

The board’s recommendation, which will be considered by the county commissioners, would limit extractive industries to five acres in size and allow no more than 20,000 tons of material to be removed each year. Those limits parallel limits set out in the Canadian-U.S. agreement.

Read the full article . . .