Draft Revisions Begin, Alternate Plan Heard

SWAN VALLEY - Members of the Swan Valley Regional Plan Committee (SVRPC) began revisions on the Swan Valley Regional Plan (SVRP) draft at their April 13 meeting. The SVRPC discussed and approved edits and comments submitted by Missoula lawyer Colleen Dowdall, local journalist Suzanne Vernon, Missoula Community and Planning Services (CAPS) planner Mitch Doherty, residents and those in attendance. The committee also heard an alternate plan submitted by Swan Valley resident Harry Blazer.

The SVRPC voted to accept Dowdall’s edits to the following:

• Shorten the verbiage to the Planning Background and Process on the Introductory Page

• Begin the fourth paragraph with the definition of the acronym GPA (replaces GPS which is in error) which is goal, policy and action statements.

• Delete the verbiage in the last paragraph on page two referring to acknowledgment and appreciation to several entities.

• Planning Premises number three: Delete second home as a reason why the total number of housing units is increasing

• Planning Premises number four: Delete “ability to provide [aging] services.”

The SVRPC voted to include the word draft when referencing the “Swan Valley and Condon Community Profile, 2010.” They agreed to add the “Draft Swan Valley and Condon Community Profile, 2010” and “Upper Swan Valley Landscape Assessment, 2004”, mentioned in the fifth paragraph, to the document’s addendum.

Property rights and conservation easements as outlined in numbers five and six of the Planning Premises:

5. Recognize that the Swan Valley community exists because current and prior residents exercised their property rights, that those rights must be protected to the extent of the law, and provided that adverse impacts to neighboring properties are avoided or effectively mitigated.

6. Recognize too that the Swan Valley remains a viable, intact ecosystem because many existing and prior residents have exercised their property rights in the form of conservation easements.

Chair Cilla Moseley and Swan Valley Community Council (SVCC) chair Ken Donovan agreed with Vernon’s edit and CAPS planner Doherty’s letter that property rights don’t have a place in the document.

“It is not our place to define what property rights are or aren’t. We can’t affect property rights. We don’t want to bring up one particular right [conservation easements]. We would need to list all the ways people can use their private property. We don’t want it to sound like we are promoting it,” said Moseley. The SVRPC voted to remove statements five and six from the Planning Premises.

Swan Valley resident Harry Blazer proposed to get a group of Swan Valley residents together to challenge the Board of Missoula County Commissioners to exempt the Swan Valley area from their rules and regulations.

“We have the power to [get exempted] under state law,” said Blazer. “I have ideas about how we can handle ourselves [if they exempt us].”

He said he met with the Missoula County Commissioners and told them of the state law that would allow exemption. When asked what the Commissioners said, Blazer said they had no comment.

SVRPC chair Cilla Moseley suggested getting a petition signed by the majority of residents and taking it to the (SVCC) to see if they agree to do it.

SVRPC member Dave Johnson said, “I want to know what kind of administration we would have to have take care of it before I sign a petition.” Discussion followed about whether the exemption would be just to the growth policy or all rules and regulations.

SVRPC member Dwayne Forder said that SVCC would need to look into it.

Moseley wrote in an email to the Pathfinder that the revisions will not be available on the county website until the plan is completely rewritten and it goes out for comments again. However, residents can request to be added to the list to receive emailed revisions by emailing swanvalleyplancomments@gmail.com

The next SVRPC meetings will be held May 4 and 11 at 7 p.m. at the Swan Valley Community Hall.