Land Use Planning and Smart Growth

For the last twenty years, the population in Montana has grown at a rapid rate. Between 1990 and 2000, Montana’s population grew by 12.9%, but the amount of land developed grew by 100%. Much of this development is outside of cities and towns and devours farms, ranches, and wildlife habitat. According to recent projections, at our current rate of land development, nearly all of western Montana’s mountain valleys will be covered by roads and buildings by 2025.

Without adequate planning, growth can degrade surface and ground water, fragment wildlife habitat, and replace productive agricultural lands with rural subdivisions that don’t generate sufficient tax income to pay for the infrastructure and services they demand. Montana’s land use planning laws need to be revised so that future development will protect Montana's key economic and natural assets.

Background: Land Use Planning and Growth Policies

Rapid development from 1990 to 2005 strained the resources and planning efforts of many Montana counties. Since 1990, Montana legislatures have revised the statutes which govern land resources and use (Title 76 of the Montana Code Annotated) to require more specific planning information so that counties could better prepare for the challenges of rapid growth. The most recent of the changes to Title 76 began in 1999 when the Legislature passed Senate Bill (SB) 97, requested by the Montana Environmental Quality Council, to reform local land use planning by requiring ‘growth policies.’ Unfortunately, this act provided little guidance to help local governments plan for and prepare for future growth.

The growth policy act created a very basic framework that local governments must follow if they decide to engage in land use planning. Growth policies must address certain elements, including community goals and objectives, plans for infrastructure growth, and provide an implementation strategy for the growth policy, with a timetable for reviewing the plan at least once every five years. In addition, growth policies may include neighborhood plans and must address subdivision review criteria (i.e., the effect of subdivisions on agriculture, agricultural water use facilities, wildlife, public health, and local services). A very important aspect of recent changes to the law is that local governments must require that zoning or subdivision regulations be consistent with an applicable growth policy. 

In 2003, the legislature passed another law, SB 326 (Dan McGee, R-Laurel), to revise the statutes related to growth policies and planning boards. SB 326 weakened rather than clarified the growth policy law by allowing counties to adopt a growth policy for only part of the county and by allowing local governments to decide the detail with which they want to address the provisions of the growth policy.

A bill that would have improved land use planning and growth policies failed in the 2005 session, but will probably be introduced in a modified form in the 2007 Legislature. SB 195 (Mike Wheat, D-Bozeman) would have provided fastgrowing counties an incentive to work with cities to designate ‘quality growth areas’ in and around existing towns. SB 195 also would have provided guidance and funding to help fast growing communities plan for the infrastructure to service projected growth most efficiently and take measures to help ensure that enough affordable housing is being built for Montanans.

In addition, in 2005 the Legislature enacted SB 116 (Rick Laible,. R-Ravalli) and SB 290 (Jeff Mangan, D-Great Falls), both of which gave citizens more information about and opportunities to comment on proposed subdivisions.

Recommendations for the Future

The next Montana Legislature should work to revise and improve Montana’s land use planning laws so that future developments will not harm Montana's key economic and natural assets: Montana’s open lands and quality of life, its water, its agricultural operations, its recreational opportunities.

To do so, the Montana Legislature should approve legislation that will:

• Create a process and authorize funding for fast-growing cities and counties to work together to identify areas where growth can best be accommodated to ensure the most efficient use of land, water, and taxes for the provision of infrastructure and services.

• Streamline the development process for communities and counties that have adopted such plans and regulations to guide development into and around existing towns and ensure that future development will avoid or mitigate impacts on the environment, quality of life, and local services.

• Enable local governments, working with state agencies, to identify lands, waters and uses that should be protected so the governments can guide development to appropriate areas. These protected areas could include prime farm, ranch, and timber lands, wetlands, river and stream corridors, and critical wildlife habitat.

• Encourage local governments to identify flood and fire hazard areas and adopt measures to protect people and property by minimizing exposure to those hazards and lowering the costs to taxpayers of flood and fire protections.

• Other land use practices are ‘subsidies for sprawl’ and changes should be made to reduce both the impacts of poor planning and the costs to taxpayers by adopting state access management guidelines and requiring traffic impact studies for new subdivisions to evaluate and limit the impact new subdivisions will have on state highways and arterials. Developers should pay the full cost to mitigate the potential impacts, which often cost millions of dollars to mitigate and end up being paid by taxpayers. Controlling and planning for such accesses would lower the tax burden on local residents and encourage infill development.