The next few weeks are crunch time for the City of Columbia Falls to comply with the Montana Land Use Planning Act, a state law designed to streamline and front load the planning process for new developments.

The city continues to tweak its new land use plan, though it admits it will be a couple of weeks late in meeting the state’s deadline. The plan is supposed to be done by the end of May. 

The city will look to adopt it by June 15, if the schedule holds true.

The public still has a couple of opportunities to hear more about the plan and to scrutinize its vision if need be. On May 14 at 6 p.m., the City Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the plan, then the City Council will hold a public hearing on June 1 and have a first formal reading of the plan.

It will then have another public hearing on the final plan and adopt it June 15. City council meetings are at 7 p.m. and open to the public.

The Land Use Plan is a guiding, but not regulatory document and is amendable. Zoning and subdivision regulations, which follow the plan’s vision, are the regulatory enforcement. 

During a recent training session with attorney Justin Breck, he likened the subdivision and zoning like crafting a new law in the legislature, where the public has input and there’s debate.

But once the zoning is in place, it becomes more like a court case, where the city council approves subdivisions and public comment is limited or there isn’t any at all, particularly if it meets the zoning and subdivision regulations that are in place.

In that instance, the council or city manager acts as a judicial review of the project.

Breck noted it’s like a trial in court. 

“(There’s) no right for the public to comment at a trial,” he said.

Having said that, if there is a zone change with a project or annexation, it would be subject to a public hearing and other cities, like Kalispell, are adopting policies that will at least  give the public a 15-day notice for new subdivisions, even if they meet the zoning requirements.

The city also plans to release draft new zoning and subdivision regulations early next week.

The actual land use plan mirrors the previous plan in many aspects, but focuses city growth to the south and west of the city, particularly near the airport, where developers have had an interest in building hotels and other amenities, provided the city extends services like sewer and water to the area. That’s a relatively straightforward process, as the city’s sewage treatment plant is almost in line with Walsh Road to Highway 2, unlike east of the Flathead River, which would be more expensive boring under the river itself, which has proven highly unpopular with the public in the past.

The Land Use Plan also has a new “downtown designation,” which calls for buildings up to six stories, with commercial space on the bottom floors and residential in the upper floors.

Since it was first drafted, the city has also tweaked the land use just north of the city in what is now an industrial park just north of Railroad Street.

Some of that area is now designated as residential. With developer Mick Ruis’s plans to build Teakettle Heights on the former Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. Property and extend the sewer lines north of railroad tracks, the area could be suitable for more housing in the future, the current landowners have told city leaders.

The draft Land Use Plan is available at: columbia-falls-land-use-plan-ctagroup.hub.arcgis.com