Missoula County is considering a separate land use board as the city pursues code reform

Missoula County is considering a separate land use board as the city pursues code reform

MISSOULA – As the city works to develop a new land use plan and adopt new zoning codes, Missoula County is creating a new board to measure its planning decisions and serve as an appeals resource.

Karen Hughes, director of Planning, Development and Sustainability, said Monday the county is looking to create a Missoula County Land Use Board that will also include the county’s Board of Adjustments.

“It’s easier for people to monitor just one board,” Hughes said. “It takes a lot less time for the staff.”

In an effort to comply with the state’s new land use and planning law, the Missoula City Council voted in July to abolish the current city-county consolidated planning board and create a new entity.city ​​planning commission.

Many of the commission’s duties will remain unchanged at first, but eventually the commission will serve as an appeals body for certain projects when such appeals are authorized by law.

“There’s an additional new function to use them as an appeals board to appeal administrative, site-related development review decisions,” said Laval Means, the city’s community planning manager.

The current city-county combined planning board also serves as a resource for county development. But as the board dissolves, the county will place its board appointments on its new Missoula County Land Use Board.

Members of the County Board of Adjustment will complement the members of the county’s new Land Use Board.

“It would be easy for us to put it together,” Hughes said. “They would work as a joint planning board. But they will serve as a planning commission. He would conduct legislative work, including appeals.

Members of the new combined county council must live outside the city limits. Most of the county’s current appointments to the Integrated Planning Board meet this requirement.

However, board member Sean McCoy lives within city limits and cannot serve on the county board, county officials said Monday.

“If you’re going to guide these decisions, you should be their government,” Hughes said.

Hughes said the county will wait to create a new land use board until the city adopts its new land use plan.

“We’ve talked about the possibility of waiting until their plan is adopted and before we start providing information about the codes to make that transition,” Hughes said. “They will have a new city planning commission. We are transitioning from the Consolidated Planning Board to the new Consolidated Land Use Board for the county. We’re shooting for a March transition.”

The changes come after the Legislature passed the Montana Land Use and Planning Act. Among other things, it requires major cities in the state to comply with the act by 2026.



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