County P&Z OKs moratorium extension

Still trying to end "sued if you do, sued if you don’t" decision-making, the Blaine County Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved a second extension to its subdivision moratorium Thursday.

The P&Z could not promise the extension, to last 90 days from June 13 until the middle of September, would be the last. County commissioners must also approve the extension before it takes effect.

The moratorium was enacted last year after a number of court challenges were decided against the county and development pressures mounted.

"The county seemed to be getting sued whether they approved one [subdivision] or they denied one," P&Z member Tom Bowman said.

The reason, Bowman explained, was that planning designations in the county‘s comprehensive plan and its zoning ordinances do not support one another.

"We are here to make sure they’re more in sync with each other," Bowman said. "We’re not interested in growth control. We’re interested in planning."

The moratorium cut off consideration of subdivision and rezone applications in agricultural zones A-10 and A-20, and in the R-5 residential transition zone.

The prior two moratorium terms lasted 120 and 180 days, respectively. The first began August of 1997 to allow county staff time to realign the planning documents.

"It would be better to have a good plan with a lot of public impact than to try to get it done by a certain date," P&Z member Sandra Sullivan said.

The rewrites of ordinances and the comprehensive plan drag on, as do other planning issues.

"I’m not sure if we can finish our task by the end of this one," Bowman said of the new extension.

At the start of Thursday’s hearing, the only public comment from the packed audience came from Magic Reservoir area landowner Norm Fuller.

Fuller is one of two locals whose subdivision application is frozen in the P&Z office files. Glen Marshall’s request to build five lots on land south of Bellevue is the other.

"I’m against the moratorium, because I feel there’s been adequate time to do what has to be done," Fuller said.

What has to be done is to amend the subdivision ordinance and implement, or at least agree to, a transfer of density rights program.

Transfers of density rights are a tool, currently untested in Blaine County, that remove development densities from agricultural lands and concentrate the growth closer to cities and services.

More recently, talk of a down-zone of all productive ag lands in southern Blaine County to A-160 has been batted around P&Z meetings.

The P&Z’s approval stands as a recommendation to Blaine County Commissioners. The commissioners will consider the matter on May 18 at 4 p.m.

#

As the P&Z neared a decision, public debate on the moratorium extension heated up.

"Is there any way to put a ceiling on the extensions of the moratorium?" Lloyd Betts, who owns a ranch in southern Blaine, asked. "People are being strung out...they’re people who have money on the table," Betts said.

Betts claimed a sale of his ranch slid through his fingers when the potential buyer, a developer from Maryland, backed out because of uncertainty created by the moratorium and other county planning efforts.

"The purpose of this is not to serve the people who have money on the table," P&Z member Sandra Sullivan answered. "It is to serve the public."