Western Dispatch November 2010 - Progress in the Northern Rockies

Local Conservation Progress
in the Northern Rockies

Friends,

I am pleased to report on two substantial accomplishments associated with the Institute's smart growth and open space conservation efforts in the Northern Rockies. In Montana, the Missoula County Commissioners endorsed the Seeley Lake Regional Plan; and in Wyoming, Sheridan County Commissioners have embraced a Conservation Design Subdivision plan for preserving open space and the rural character of their county.

Years in the making, both initiatives are tangible examples of county officials and community leaders taking advantage of the "pause" resulting from the real estate bust to better prepare their codes and regulations - and themselves - for renewed growth and development in the future.

This kind of smart, proactive planning is good news not only for the preservation of our landscapes and natural resources, but also for the quality of life and economic vitality of these two counties. I am gratified to report that both successes have direct links to the effective policy and field work of the Institute's staff and partners in Montana and Wyoming.

Collaboration Leads to a Landmark Growth Management Plan

Seeley Lake is paradise in Montana.

Situated between Missoula and Helena and surrounded by the Lolo and Flathead national forests, the area is a magnet for fishing, hunting, hiking and discovering the beauty and solitude of the great outdoors. The area also bustles with wildlife, including grizzly bear and lynx.

Like many recreationally rich areas in western Montana, Seeley Lake felt the full brunt of speculative real estate development activity, beginning in the 1990s. As residents and resource agencies awakened to the implications of run-away growth, their call for smart growth and regional zoning collided with a potentially huge obstacle: Plum Creek Timber Company.

Plum Creek's historic business is logging and timber management, but the company has realized that its vast land holdings can also be highly profitable to develop. Plum Creek owns about 35 percent, or 83,000 acres of the 235,535-acre planning region that encompasses Seeley Lake. Plum Creek also owns a majority of the private land in the county, about 52 percent. Authorized under Montana law to essentially veto any zoning proposal, Plum Creek is a major force in determining future growth patterns in the region.

As the county commissioners worked on the Seeley Lake Regional Plan in early 2010, a plan that would not implement zoning but rather set the stage (and limits) for future zoning, Plum Creek's director of real estate, Kathleen Sims, summarized the company's view of the Commissioners' challenge: "It is your hard job to figure out a compromise between the legitimate interests of landowners and the economic benefits of reasonable development on the one hand, and against the fierce desires by some residents to see no change at all in the valley. The draft that you have before you does not create that balance."

Almost five years later, after hundreds of hours of negotiations and 10 public hearings in the last year, the Seeley Lake Regional Plan crossed the finish line on October 20, 2010, when the Missoula County Commissioners approved the plan. Gaining Plum Creek's approval, the plan was also endorsed by the U.S. Forest Service; Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks; and the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.

"I've been in the planning profession for over 30 years, and this is the first time I've seen a community struggle for so long but come to such a positive outcome that represents virtually all sides of the community of Seeley Lake," said Pat O'Herren, director of Missoula County's Rural Initiatives office. "This is a landmark plan because it does such a wonderful job of defining the values of this community."

"There were those who said this was too focused on natural resource protection," said County Commissioner Jean Curtiss. "But, when you look at comments people provided, they all shared why they live there and what they value, and it's the land, its wildlife, its water and access to it. So it had to be a resource protection plan."

The Sonoran Institute, spearheaded by former staffer Tim Davis, who led our Montana Smart Growth Coalition project for years, and was recently appointed as Water Resources Division Administrator for the Montana Department of Natural Resources & Conservation, was instrumental in the Seeley Lake Regional Plan process, providing expert testimony, research, data, and ideas for growth plans that would prevent the threat of unbridled home development and rural sprawl in the region.

A Text Book Example of Good Planning in Sheridan, Wyoming

At its meeting in early November, Sheridan County Commissioners took a major step forward by adopting a Conservation Design Subdivision plan as part of Sheridan County Comprehensive Plan regulating land use.

Our project manager in Wyoming, John Heyneman, reports that Sheridan's Conservation Design Subdivision plan supports key land-use goals that the Institute has advocated for the county, including retaining agricultural and rural areas, encouraging clustered development patterns by using incentives to conserve open space or resources, and providing stewardship of natural resources.

"Sheridan's new Comprehensive Plan and subdivision regulations are as forward thinking as anywhere in the West," says John. "They are designed to encourage growth and economic development in a way that honors the landscape so critical to the community's identity."

Like most important successes, this one has a long tale. In 2008, in the midst of booming growth and a sub-dividing frenzy in the state, Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal hosted the Building the Wyoming We Want conference to provide a forum to talk about unrestrained real estate development, rural sprawl, the loss of open space, and the need for better growth-related planning in the state.

Building on the energy of the conference, the Wyoming Legislature in 2008 passed new subdivision and growth laws that the Institute actively supported. A key provision in the new law gives counties the option of regulating subdivisions with lot sizes ranging from 35 to 140 acres. Previously, counties could only regulate subdivisions with lots smaller than 35 acres - meaning that developers could subdivide into larger parcels at will, with no requirements regarding roads, water, sewer, or power.

True to Wyoming's penchant for incenting rather than restricting, the legislature with this new law also created an incentive for "conservation design," a process that, for taxation purposes, classifies open space within subdivisions as agricultural land instead of residential. To qualify, developers must cluster residential lots and leave most of the land open space.

Chris Duerksen, a Sonoran Institute Board member and Colorado-based managing director of Clarion Associates, a land-use consulting firm, worked directly with Sheridan County Planner Mark Reid and others to reach out to the public and secure passage of the Conservation Design Subdivision plan. "Sheridan County did it properly. It was a text book case of how good planning is done," said Duerksen.

Living the New Norm

As the real estate boom turned to bust, communities across the West are left to deal with the destruction that uncontrolled growth left in its wake: sprawling development that has permanently transformed rural landscapes and strained the natural and fiscal resources of many communities for years to come. In today's era of fiscal restraint and economic hardship, communities are recognizing that they simply can't afford the cost of bad development. They can no longer approve sprawling development without a true understanding of the associated benefits and costs to the community.

I am very pleased to see county officials, community leaders, and landowners coming together in Montana and Wyoming to embrace what we believe must become the "new norm" in the West -- local governments taking a hard look at their land-use codes and policies to ensure that they are fiscally responsible, and that they properly balance vital resource protection issues against the pressures of development. Congratulations to Missoula and Sheridan counties, which worked long and hard to achieve this balance. Their success means that when the real estate market revives, they have sensible plans in place to protect their local economies and preserve what they value most about their communities.

Sincerely,