A court hearing over Flathead County’s recent zone change allowing smaller lots on farmland near Whitefish has been rescheduled to Oct. 5.

Retired Flathead District Judge Kitty Curtis has agreed to hear the case. The hearing starts at 9 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 5.

A hearing initially set for Aug. 28 was postponed.

District Judge Ted Lympus recently ordered the county commissioners to either revoke the zone change or appear in court to show cause why they shouldn’t repeal the zone change.

The city of Whitefish is suing the county over the county’s approval of a zone change on 62 acres owned by Evan Shaw north of the intersection of Montana 40 and Whitefish Stage Road.

In June the commissioners shifted zoning from SAG-10, suburban agricultural with a 10-acre development minimum, to SAG-5, suburban agricultural with a 5-acre minimum.

That decision came amid opposition from the city of Whitefish, which contends the zone change is not consistent with the 2007 Whitefish growth policy and land-use map that discourages rezoning areas outside the city until the city meets a 50 percent threshold on its infill policy.

The property is located in Whitefish’s beleaguered “doughnut” area around the city where the county now has planning control.

A group of neighbors protested the zone change but fell short of getting the required 40 percent of property owners within the Southeast Rural Whitefish Zoning District to file formal protests.

Shaw’s property is bordered by the Whitefish city boundary on the west, and on the north, east and southwest by land zoned SAG-10 and agricultural with a 20-acre minimum lot size. The lawsuit notes that the county growth policy identifies Shaw’s property as “important farmlands.”

The lawsuit also referred to the 1996 Whitefish City-County Master Plan that contained a similar important farmland and “sensitive area’ designation. The commissioners last week repealed the 1996 plan, however, as the county moves toward permanent county zoning in the doughnut area.

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