SWAN VALLEY - We have an opportunity before us to be heard or to be ignored. I am writing this letter to those of us who want to be heard by Missoula County regarding the maintenance and protection of the Swan Valley.
As many of you know, a draft of a neighborhood plan has been completed by the planning committee of the Swan Valley Community Council. It is a document consisting of values based on an envisioning process (a community survey technique) carried out in 2012 by the Swan Valley-Condon Comprehensive Plan-Growth Committee.
It is my suspicion that most of us who have retired to the Swan have a list of hopes and expectations for this phase of our life and that this list does NOT include regularly attending meetings. But ever since it was recognized by a determined group of individuals in our community that our 1996 growth plan (Swan Valley-Condon Comprehensive Plan) was overdue for review, it was also determined by this same group that the 1996 plan needed to be completely rewritten, not simply revised, as allowed by law. And since then, the need to regularly attend meetings has never ceased. These are not social meetings; these are meetings that require work: reading old documents, attending other meetings, writing letters and communicating with local residents and county officials.
Right now, as a result of a lot of work, we are at a crossroads as to what is going to happen to the wildlife habitat and the rural and wild character of the Swan Valley, in other words, what is going to happen to the quality of the natural resources.
This situation requires all of us to put our “lists” in a drawer and hope that in a year or two we can return to our hopes and expectations of retirement in the Swan, once we know that it is clear to all concerned that the vast majority of the 700+ residents of the Swan Valley that live here and want to remain here because of the beauty, wildness and rural character of this place. As I write today this is not the case, because a number of determined individuals push to bring virtually unregulated development to our doorstep.
We need hundreds of testimonies, letters and emails to reach the desks of the Swan Valley Community Council, Missoula County Planning Board and the Missoula County Commissioners. These communications must relay the fact that you are delighted with the emphasis placed by the draft neighborhood plan on the importance of the pristine quality of our natural resources. As those 100+ people stated in the 2012 envisioning survey, the maintenance of our natural resources is the most important factor as we move forward with any type of development.
Go to the Swan Valley website, go to Missoula County website, check the flyers posted around the Valley or call 210-1125 for the details as to how to be heard.
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