MISSOULA — As the city works to develop its new land use plan and adopt new zoning codes, Missoula County will establish a new board to weigh in on its own planning decisions and serve as a resource for appeals.
Karen Hughes, director of Planning, Development and Sustainability, on Monday said the county is looking to create a Missoula County Land Use Board, which would also include the county's Board of Adjustments.
“It's easier for the public to have just one board to track,” said Hughes. “It' going to take a lot less staff time.”
In an effort to comply with the state's new Land Use and Planning Act, the Missoula City Council in July voted to do away with the current City-County Consolidated Planning Board and create a newcity-specific planning commission.
Many of the commission's responsibilities won't initially change but eventually, the commission will evolve to serve as an appellate for certain projects, when such appeals are permitted by law.
“There is an added new function to use them as an appellate board for appeals of administrative, site-specific development review decisions,” said Laval Means, the city's community planning manager.
The current City-County Consolidated Planning Board also serves as a resource for county development. But as the board dissolves, the county will likely place its board appointments on its new Missoula County Land Use Board.
Members of the County Board of Adjustments would round out the members of the county's new land-use board.
“It would be relatively easy for us to put it together,” said Hughes. “They'd function as a joint planning board. But they'd be set up to serve as a planning commission. It would do the legislative work, including appeals.”
Members of the county's new consolidated board would be required to live outside city limits. Most of the county's current appointments to the Consolidated Planning Board meet that requirement.
However, board member Sean McCoy lives within city limits and does not qualify to serve on the county board, county officials said Monday.
“If you're guiding those decisions, it makes sense that you should be government by them,” Hughes said.
Hughes added that the county will likely wait to create the new land use board until after the city has adopted its new land use plan.
“We've talked about the possibility of waiting until their plan is adopted and before they start outreach on codes to make this transition,” said Hughes. “They'd have their new city planning commission. We'd transition away from the Consolidated Planning Board to the new Consolidated Land Use Board for the county. We're shooting for a March transition.”
The changes are taking place on the heels of the Legislature's adoption of the Montana Land Use and Planning Act. Among other things, it requires larger cities across the state to comply with the act by 2026.
