The Flathead County commissioners on Tuesday declined to authorize a notice of public hearing for two zoning matters after a citizens advocacy group claimed the county is not meeting state requirements for notification.

Mayre Flowers, executive director of Citizens for a Better Flathead, said state law requires that notice of zoning hearings be posted not less than 45 days before the public hearing and that the notice must state the proposed zoning regulations are on file for public inspection at the county Clerk and Recorder’s Office.

The zoning hearings postponed at Flowers’ request included a zone change proposed by Eagle Creek in the Blanchard Lake Zoning District and the county’s proposed text amendments to county zoning regulations.

Flowers said it isn’t possible for the county to comply with state law if the commissioners authorize a notice of public hearing before the Planning Board hearing has taken place and before the board has issued a recommendation on proposed changes to zoning regulations.

“It is important for the public process to work as the Legislature intended and as the public has the right to expect under our state constitution for meaningful public participation,” Flowers said.

Planning Director BJ Grieve, who said he is reviewing Citizens for a Better Flathead’s assertions, said criticism from the organization stems from a procedural change August 2012 following complaints the Planning Office had received about the amount of time it took to process a zone change.

“We reviewed what at that time was a 31-week process and identified three places where we felt we could cut out some time while still meeting statutory requirements and make it a 19-week process,” Grieve said.

One of the places the Planning Office identified was the timeline for publishing legal notice of public hearings for zone changes.

Zone changes start with a Planning Board hearing, then the recommendation of the Planning Board is forwarded to the commissioners and they hold a subsequent public hearing.

Legal notices of Planning Board hearings are published in the newspaper 17 days prior to the hearing, Grieve said. However, legal notice of the commissioners’ public hearing must be published in the newspaper once a week for two weeks prior to the hearing and, due to a change in the law a few years ago, posted in at least five public places no less than 45 days (or just over six weeks) prior to the commissioners’ hearing.

Historically, the county had processed zone changes by waiting until after the Planning Board hearing to schedule the commissioners’ authorization to publish notice of public hearing and post that notice in five public places at least 45 days prior to the hearing.

“When you add the time to prepare the file after the Planning Board hearing, send it to the commissioners and have the attorneys write up a legal notice, this would make it about 60 days between Planning Board and commissioner hearings,” Grieve said.

“I looked at this and thought if we could legally notice both hearings at about the same time and post notice per the requirements, those notices would appear in a manner that would allow the Planning Board to hold their hearing and make a recommendation. Then the commissioners’ hearing [would] take place about three weeks after the Planning Board hearing while still meeting notice requirements.”

Grieve said that although he doesn’t believe the changes the Planning Office made in 2012 to compress the process were wrong per se, it seemed prudent to postpone the notifications of public hearing until the comments from Citizens can be further studied.

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