************************For Immediate Release ************************

RE: B-2HG (Green Belt) Zoning Protest Petition and Form Letters Now Available

Date: 24 June 2011

Contact:             Mayre Flowers, Executive Director, Citizens for a Better Flathead

                        406-756-8993 mayre@flatheadcitizens.org

In light of a proposed new zoning policy for "general business" uses, including retail, along all major roads (including many rural roads) in the county, Citizens for a Better Flathead is organizing an effort to enable the public to more easily voice their opposition to this expansive and potentially detrimental new zone.  Over the next two weeks, the local land-use non-profit will be helping a growing group of county and city residents opposed to this new zone to gather signatures of county residents throughout the Valley in protest to the zone change.  They have also made available protest forms that can be downloaded and mailed directly to the commissioners' office.  Petitions and protest forms are available online for download at www.flatheadcitizens.org.  The public has until 5pm, Tuesday, July 5, 2011 to comment and voice their protest.

The proposed new B-2HG zone, which has also been referred to as a 'Greenbelt,' because it does include some limited landscaping requirements, would allow strip commercial development with some 63 possible uses along all major roads in the county.  It establishes a catchall category that some within the planning office have called a "new tool for the tool box," but as Citizens for a Better Flathead board member, Sharon DeMeester, has said "is actually a Pandora's box of unintended consequences."

DeMeester, who lives in the Ponderosa subdivision on Hwy 93 (one of the many subdivisions that will be impacted by this new zoning that allows this commercial uses to backup to within 20 feet of existing homes) continues, "In these challenging economic times the Flathead needs to attract tourists and new business investments to sustain our local economy. But opening the door to strip commercial development along our major county roads is a recipe for turning the Flathead into an unappealing Anywhere, USA hodgepodge of strip development that discourages investment, undermines the character of the valley and the economic health of our existing downtowns."

Board Chair of Citizens for a Better Flathead, Lynn Stanley goes on to add, "We believe the county commissioners share a desire to keep the Flathead a dynamic place to live, visit, and invest, but what began as a proposal to meet the needs of a small group of land owners on Highway 93, has mushroomed into an overly large proposal for a new zone that affects all major county roads."

To learn how and where a resident may sign a petition or get a protest form letter, please call 756-8993 or email citizens@flatheadcitizens.org.