County Planning Participants Suggest Moratorium on Subdivisions
 | Author:
Nancy Marks
Nancy Marks: MT43 News Secretary and News Editor |
County Planning Participants Suggest Moratorium on Subdivisions
MT 43 News Staff Reporter
After a short study of increased growth in Broadwater County, rancher Chuck Hahn suggested the county commissioners put a halt to more subdivisions until the county growth plan can be updated to meet the needs of public and agricultural lands, towns and subdivisions in the county. The meeting held Tuesday, November 14 at the Flynn Building was the third county growth plan meeting led by WGM civil engineer Jamie Erbacher of Missoula.
Commissioner Darrel Folkvord was quick to address the idea of a moratorium on more subdivisions. “We don’t have a lot of power. We are caught between professional developers and state and legislative laws. If subdividers meet the regulatory requirements we have no choice but to approve their plans,” he explained.
Winston resident Audrey Martin who has a background in public policy with both state and federal governments weighed in saying that the county's natural resources like forest land and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) acreage can only be changed through cooperation with local conservation districts as well as state and federal departments. “ We need to know what other districts are doing with projects that affect growth policy,” she said.
Folkvord indicated that to prevent or slow down more growth would involve strong support from the public with legal and regulatory reasons for not allowing developers to proceed. Currently, three new subdivisions in South Broadwater and one on the east side of Canyon Ferry Lake are proposed.
A check with US Census.Gov shows Broadwater County residents numbers at 5,612 in 2010. By 2020 the census showed 6,774. By July 2022 the Census Bureau estimated 7,793 residents lived in the county.
The last time Broadwater County’s growth plan was updated was in 2017. With the predicted huge jump in people moving to the county, the commissioners contacted the Montana Department of Commerce(MDC) and hired WGM Group to assist in updating the plan.
During the first two public meetings, Erbacher presented avenues for funding and support from various state and federal agencies that are available to the county. She and others addressed water shortages, lack of infrastructure and emergency services. Meeting participants worked with Broadwater County maps indicating where they thought public and agricultural land should be protected, where the buildup of residential areas might thrive and how to tie them together around water availability and infrastructure needs.
Erbacher presented her group’s findings to prepare a final plan as to suggested changes in the county’s land use designation. The county has a large amount of open resource lands such as forest lands and floodplain areas. On the maps, she showed working land such as range land and tillable areas used by the county’s farmers and ranchers. “We designated some areas rural residential indicating small agricultural lands. This area will grow gradually if we also have planned neighborhoods along with some commercial areas. Planned neighborhoods can use a public water system or be attached to city water.
Since water availability is a constraint in the county, the commissioners have moved on setting up a Preliminary Engineering Report paid for by a grant and set up through MDC.
The meeting broke into groups to indicate on the maps where industrial areas, public lands, agricultural and city and towns should be located.
Twenty- two people attended the strategic meeting including well drilling company officials, Townsend’s Mayor-Elect Vickie Rauser, the commissioners, Broadwater County Development Corporation (BCDC) members, ranchers and other members of the public. Also in attendance were Montana Department of Commerce community and land use planners Dani Arps and Gus Byrom.
