The Flathead County Planning Office’s workload increased 30 percent during 2013, due in part to more interest in local land development.

The office received 255 applications last year, compared to 180 applications in 2012. Those applications include both land-use permit requests and complaints such as alleged zoning, lakeshore and flood-plain violations.

Speculative development increased slightly while a strong interest from the public and development community in protecting entitled or developed assets continued to require the staff’s attention, according to the Planning Office’s annual report.

Fee revenue, typically an indicator of the ups and downs of local development activity, was up 35 percent during the last calendar year.

For the county’s current fiscal year, fee revenue is trending upward in a big way, Planning Director BJ Grieve said. He had projected $48,000 in fee revenue for the entire fiscal year that ends June 30, but by the end of December — roughly the halfway mark — the Planning Office already had taken in more than $50,000.

“It’s not boom-type numbers, but it’s clear it’s bouncing back up,” Grieve said.

A total of nine subdivision preliminary plats containing 63 lots and 56 recreational vehicle lots were approved in 2013, an increase of 33 percent from 2012.

Phone inquiries were up 16 percent last year, ranging from zoning violation complaints to inquiries about potential subdivision development.

Over the past decade the Planning Office has seen both extremes in local activity — from a whopping 134 rural subdivisions containing 1,690 lots approved in 2005 to just six subdivisions containing 11 lots approved in 2012.

As of Jan. 1, the county had 1,228 lots preliminarily approved for development. Of those lots, 1,204 are residential and 24 and commercial lots.

Code enforcement continues to be an integral part of the Planning Office’s workload. A code enforcement officer was hired in October 2012 for handling alleged violations. Prior to that there was a significant backlog of pending complaint files, some of which dated back a decade, the report noted.

The backlog has been cleared by the enforcement officer, with complaints either resolved or transferred to the County Attorney’s Office, Grieve said.

In 2013 the Planning Office investigated 25 zoning complaints, 11 lake and lakeshore complaints, 25 community decay complaints and eight flood-plain violation complaints.

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