The planned development of a RV park in Happy’s Inn will go forward after the Montana Supreme Court recently affirmed a local district court ruling.

The five-member panel included Justices Katherine M. Bidegaray, James Jeremiah Shea, Beth Baker, Laurie McKinnon and Ingrid Gustafson, were unanimous in their Jan. 27 ruling.

Lincoln County District Court Judge Matt Cuffe ruled March 10, 2025, in favor of the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners and Parks Family Real Estate.

The Board of Commissioners approved a preliminary plat for the proposed RV park in September 2022.

A local coalition, the Thompson Chain of Lakes Stewardship Coalition, filed suit to stop the construction, then appealed to the state Supreme Court after Judge Cuffe’s ruling.

Parks Family Real Estate and Happy’s RV Park wants to build a 21-acre park which would include 63 recreational vehicle sites and 20 tent sites. The park would be located just north of U.S. 2 across from Happy’s Inn.

Members of the coalition and those opposed to the park are primarily concerned about its proximity to several spring-fed waterways on the Thompson Chain of Lakes. The group said the RV park is allowed to use up to 207,000 gallons of water per month with subsequent wastewater output. The group says this quantity will put homeowner’s wells and lake levels at risk.

Developer Kris Cole of Parks Family Real Estate said Jan. 29 in an interview with The Western News that the group, which includes his wife Casey Cole and father-in-law Tom Parks, was happy the high court ruled in their favor.

“We expected this outcome,” Kris Cole said. “We did everything right and they had a pretty baseless lawsuit. We’re also grateful for the support we’ve received from the local community. I hope it’s over and it’s been a big waste of taxpayer money.”

While the developers have cleared some hurdles to get the park built, they still need approval from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.

DEQ must OK a permit needed for the installation of a septic system that will treat wastewater at the park.

Thompson Chain of Lakes Stewardship Coalition Board Chair Karen Wickersham told The Western News it was done fighting the RV park.

“We could ask the Supreme Court for a reconsideration, but we’ve opted to not do that,” Wickersham said.

The coalition said it was disappointed in the high court’s ruling.

“We are disappointed in the ruling by the Montana Supreme Court in the case of Thompson Chain of Lakes Stewardship Coalition vs. Lincoln County Commissioners. This decision represents a significant setback for citizen involvement in local governance. 

“The Thompson Chain of Lakes Neighborhood Plan, which was developed over three years with input from citizens and 15 stakeholder groups, served as a collaborative vision for future development of the area and was integrated into the Lincoln County Growth Policy. However, the court's ruling states that Neighborhood Plans hold little value without accompanying zoning regulations, which are currently absent in the area. Notably, the only attempt at citizen-initiated zoning was rejected by the Lincoln County Commissioners a little over a year ago.”

Despite the outcome, the coalition said it will continue to make preservation a priority.

“We will continue to remain vigilant and true to our mission and core values, prioritizing the protection of water quality and quantity, the health of forests, wildlife habitats, lakeshore preservation and the rights and voices of current property owners as well protecting the area for future generations in our neighborhood of the Chain of 18 Lakes that we all cherish.”

A new project funded by the American Geophysical Union and headed by the Thompson Chain of Lakes Stewardship Coalition seeks to unravel the complex interactions between groundwater and surface water resources in the area. It hopes to provide an answer to the question many other longtime residents have been asking for upward of a decade: Why is the water level in Crystal Lake declining? Wickersham, speaking for herself, provided a written statement expressing her feelings about the decision and one way for citizens to have more of a say in land use.

“The ruling says to me, if you live in an unzoned area, you risk having any type of development move in next to you — strip clubs, homeless shelters, gravel pits running 24/7, boarding schools for troubled teens, large RV Parks. None of those uses can easily be denied - unless there is zoning,” Wickersham said. “This ruling makes clear that neither a growth policy nor a neighborhood plan can save a neighborhood from unwanted development. The ruling states that development must simply comply with the county Growth Policy and Neighborhood Plan when “the policy is taken as a whole,” regardless of any single provision preventing a specific type of development at a specific location, as our Neighborhood Plan did.”

Wickersham advocated for citizen initiated zoning. A group of residents in the South Yaak sought it in 2023, but the county commissioners voted against it.

“One way Lincoln County residents can address this issue in the future is citizen initiated zoning, which allows property owners, rather than county officials, to propose and establish land-use for their own neighborhoods,” Wickersham said. “It serves as a bottom-up tool to manage development, protect resources, and increase predictability for rural or developing areas. The County Commissioner’s approval of future citizen-initiated zoning proposals will signal to the residents of Lincoln County that their voices are valued and respected.”

In the state Supreme Court’s Jan. 27 ruling backing the decisions of Judge Cuffe and the county commissioners, Justice Bidegray wrote the court considered three questions.

They included whether the developer’s environmental assessment satisfied the requirements of Montana code, whether the county considered the impact on the natural environment and wildlife and if the proposed subdivision complied with the Thompson Chain of Lakes Neighborhood Plan and County Growth Policy.

The Environmental Assessment reported no surface water on the proposed site and that the closest surface waters are Lavon and Crystal lakes, located about 1,200 feet south of U.S. 2. The coalition says these lakes are spring fed with no known outlets or inlets.

The plan for the RV park is to drill two wells and build four septic systems.

In terms of wildlife use, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks supplied written comments for the 2021 Mountain Lakes Subdivision Phase II. The agency provided the report for the RV park. It indicated bald eagle nests were more than one-half mile away, common loons were nesting across the highway and two collared grizzly bears used the area from 2010-18.