Posted on the Post office wall and elsewhere this week was a notice this week alerting the community members in Terry that a quorum of local elected officials would be traveling together to Glendive to meet with State officials to get help to plan for growth. Terry is one of many communities participating in the process. Their diligence in appropriate community notification earned them a Mondak News Good Government Gold Star.
Terry Zoning Board member Larry Keltner told Montana Department of Commerce staff on Wednesday that the daunting tasking of planning for the incoming energy-related population growth is “Like trying to cherry pick, but don't know what trees to pick off of.”
Kelly Casillas, Deputy Chief Legal Council Administrator for the Community Development Division says her department is dedicating staff to to help community leaders throughout the energy-industry affected counties know what to harvest or tackle first. This week, that translates to helping southeastern communities like Terry and the towns of Wibaux, Baker, and Glendive as well as Prairie, Wibaux, Fallon, and Carter counties with the support of the Eastern Plains Economic Development Corporation. A source reported a quorum of Dawson County commissioners met with the state team on Wednesday morning although the pre-planned meeting was not on the list of planned attendance provided at the last noticed county commissioner meeting. In northeastern Montana with the support of Great Northern Development Corporation Casillas and her crew have met with Richland, Roosevelt, and Sheridan county commissioners and officials from Sidney, Fairview, Wolf Point, Poplar, Culbertson, Bainville, Froid, Brockton, and Plentywood.
The Examiner attended the Terry and Prairie County session which was also attended by city staff from Glendive.
Casillas said the state offered the opportunity to meet with communities as questions about growth and regulation to her department substantially increased. No cash is available to the communities, however, her office has a budget of approximately $100,000 to fund three professional, private sector planners and one engineer who are on contract to the state to help develop templates for planning documents required by state law and to manage growth with the outcomes identified by individual communities. Casillas said that each community has expressed different priorities. Some are welcoming all growth with open arms and others are hoping to maintain the status quo managed by growth and zoning policy. She emphasized the state is there to support communities in their own will, not impose any direction from the state. This round of community meetings was set up so her office could get an understanding of what direction the communities want to go and where they are at in the process. The state team came well-prepared with a full history of funding that had been accessed by communities over decades and quick suggestions about where the communities should look for funding each in particular would be eligible for to move the planning process and infrastructure assembly forward. The combination of history, legal issues, and community direction will all play a role in what Casillas offers and she said “I feel my money is best spent on what is the most emergency and immediate needs.”
Keltner told the state “Terry is trying to sift out what heads us in the right direction, what is redundant, what we can copy, all so zoning happens in a reasonable amount of time.”
Terry Mayor Ron Kiosse added “What we are looking to find are shortcuts that are meaningful that will allow us to tailor it to our needs without having to reinvent the wheel.” Later Mayor Kiosse added “What is the fastest way to get it done? I would like to see it by the first of May.” Casillas said her plan is to return to Helena, assess the planning documents communities already have in place, determine for each community what needs to be developed or revised, and analyze what needs are similar such as templates for documents that need to be developed for multiple communities. By the end of February her office hopes to generate a report for each community reflecting expressed direction and suggestions for getting there as well as the support her office can provide to help. She emphasized again that her office can not offer manpower or cash other than basic planning.
In Terry one of the issues that brought the town and county to the table was over an attempt to create a temporary ordinance a number of months ago that some believed was intended to limit private property rights. A unique perspective that came from state consultants was that the zoning and ordinance process is not intended to limit the rights of property owners to make decisions about their property but instead it is intended to protect private property rights. Commissioner Todd Devlin reiterated that “The definition of zoning is that what one individual wants to do with their property can not impede on the rights of someone next door.”
Casillas said that each community had it's own focus. She commented“In Sidney the impression I got was their arms are wide open and they want to welcome everyone. Fairview wants to manage growth differently. Some communities want to know how to permit/allow/deal with impacts of workforce housing. There are other things like that.”
One of the apparent advantages of working with Casillas's office is communities gain access to an unofficial clearinghouse of trends that could affect their community. For example, she shared that some communities are looking at fees and permits for large trucks that are hauling on county roads. Meanwhile, the Association of Oil and Gas Counties has been talking about the ability of counties to issue permits.
Another area all communities, including Terry, are watching closely is how to deal with increased demand for water and sewer. Many communities like Terry are well-reliant and some of those regulations may change. Planning for those changes will need to go into the matrix of planning priorities for communities.
Housing regulation was, not surprising a part of the discussion. Part of the discussion was leveraging and applying regulations already in place. Terry has utilized existing international building codes and the regional sanitarian to do that. City attorney Becky Convery said “Jeff Havens (sanitarian) has been a great resource. If it is deemed to be a possible development of campground, trailer court, or work camp they are referred to the county sanitarian.” Convery added Havens developed a white-paper for regulations his office has control over for those types of housing. Officials agreed that zoning can be complex or simple, it just depends on the needs of the community. Three cautions were provided however. One was a caution and a reminder to fellow officials. It came from Keltner who said “I'm going to have a hard time asking residents of Terry to follow rules if I haven't at least tried to live within the rules.” The other the two came from state consultants who noted that as targeted zoning and ordinances are made. The first is that communities need to considered growth impact such as on emergency services and law enforcement as well as buildings that may be put up quickly but not well. The third caution was in terms of legal action against government bodies as a result of new regulation. Terry officials were told that more lawsuits can come with more specific zoning.
Terry will address more about their planning process at their February 13, 2011 city council meeting while they and all communities who are working with Casillas wait on the state's report with recommendations at the end of February. Jason Rittal, executive director of Eastern Plains Economic Development that sponsored the southeastern meetings with the state Department of Commerce closed by assuring local people will be involved in any growth policy process.
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