A court order prohibiting the Lakeside Neighborhood Plan from taking effect will remain in place a while longer.

During a hearing Monday, Flathead District Judge Stewart Stadler did not rule on a request from Flathead County to lift a preliminary injunction ordered last year. The injunction put a hold on planning activity in the Lakeside area until a lawsuit filed against the county by Lakeside area property owners is settled. 

Instead, the judge asked attorneys for both sides to submit findings and legal conclusions in the case within 10 days. Stadler will consider the request to lift the injunction at some point after that.

During the court hearing, Flathead County Deputy Attorney Paul Nicol pointed out that six of seven legal issues in the lawsuit have been decided in favor of the county. There are not sufficient grounds to continue the injunction, he argued.

Affected property owners sued the county and the Lakeside Neighborhood Planning Committee in 2009, challenging the neighborhood planning process and alleging violations of open meeting laws.

The remaining issue in the lawsuit is whether public records were destroyed. 

The plaintiffs allege some information from the neighborhood planning committee’s members-only Yahoo group website may have been deleted, thus violating a section of state law that prevents disposal of public records. 

Those public records include emails related to the Yahoo site and a number of other records the committee had stored on a personal computer that were either lost or destroyed, according to Kalispell attorney Noah Bodman, the property owners’ legal counsel.

Bodman told the judge the destruction of public records can warrant voiding the neighborhood plan, noting that Lakeside planning committee member Barb Miller already has admitted under oath that she deleted emails.

“Based on her testimony [the court] decided not to dismiss that claim,” Bodman said.

A jury trial for the remaining public-records issue is scheduled for the District Court trial term from Dec. 3 to Dec. 14, but an exact court date has not been set yet.

“The county has not provided any evidence they’re prejudiced by keeping the preliminary injunction in place,” Bodman said during Monday’s hearing. “There are no grounds for dissolving it at this time.”

Kalispell attorney Rich DeJana, another lawyer for the plaintiffs, suggested lifting the injunction 31 days after the outcome of the trial if the property owners don’t win the trial. That would allow time for a 30-day appeal period following the jury decision.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at [email protected].