Land Use Element Completed

SWAN VALLEY - The Land Use Element was completed at the Swan Valley Regional Planning Committee meeting Aug. 2. The committee deleted and reworded text in the Goals, Policies and Actions sections of the third of the seven elements to the draft Swan Valley Regional Growth Plan.

The committee began with four through seven statements of the Goals section. They accepted them as originally written.

In the Policies section, the SVRPC voted to accept the seven policies with a change in verbiage to number three. The committee wanted the third policy to state that the community wants to encourage growth in housing and population that would be compatible with the rural character and wild qualities of the area. The committee accepted the edit to number seven that reversed the order of the words to make it clearer. It reads that during the review process, the right to use and enjoy property would be respected.

In the first statement of the final section entitled Actions, the committee questioned who would explore a system that would develop standards to protect the scale and rural character of the Upper Swan Valley. Resident Loretta Thomas said that the Swan Valley residents need some sort of monitoring system that would protect the area from some of Missoula County standards.

SVRPC member Sara Halm said that some residents are afraid of zoning and others of overdevelopment.

“We need an internal committee that would explore standards and have input to Missoula County decisions about development without the words [permit or zoning],” said Chair Ken Donovan.

The committee voted unanimously that instead of using a permit and zoning system to replace it with a local subcommittee that would explore standards for the area.

The SVRPC accepted the rest of the original wording in the Action section except they deleted number seven. It had been decided previously to eliminate reference to property rights in the premise of the document as it is addressed in state codes.

The fourth element entitled Housing will be reviewed at the next SVRPC meeting Aug. 16, 7 p.m. at the Swan Valley Community Hall.