The Jefferson County Planning Board held open houses last week in Boulder, Whitehall, and Montana City, offering locals the chance to provide input on the board’s growth policy plan.
The Planning Board plans to integrate community feedback over the next month and present their final report for adoption by the Jefferson County Commissioners in May or June.
Montana state law recommends, but does not require, a county growth policy, mainly to guide decisions on land use, infrastructure, and services, as well as public safety and recreation. An updated growth policy is often an explicit requirement for state and federal grant applications.
In the 22 years since the publication of its first growth policy document, Jefferson County has seen great change. Its population has grown by more than 25 percent despite the shuttering of the Montana Developmental Center and the Golden Sunlight and Montana Tunnels mines, which together employed hundreds of county residents.
The Planning Board and Great West Engineering used GIS mapping of present land use trends and residential patterns and updated socioeconomic data to propose a series of solutions to support county landowners and agricultural workers. The updated growth plan encourages the use of conservation easements to protect agricultural lands and to identify opportunities to support landowner initiated zoning, which would provide property owners with greater flexibility in utilizing owned lands for commercial purposes.
The growth policy also seeks to encourage the commercial harvesting of timber on public and private lands, improve the county’s fire mitigation measures, and identify areas with minimum constraints and environmental impact for future residential and commercial development.
The document calls for county subdivision and zoning regulations to be updated, to encourage and control new housing developments and businesses. In addition, the plan envisions a county-wide housing needs assessment and action plan, to be completed in 2026 or 2027. The growth plan also commits the county to updating its Capital Improvements Plan to help identify presently vulnerable county infrastructure, particularly roads and bridges, and prioritize its maintenance and repair.
Finally, the plan calls for careful examination of law enforcement, fire response, libraries, parks and recreation, healthcare, education, emergency medical services, senior services, solid waste disposal, and utilities functions. It envisions improving volunteer and staffing incentives to ensure that service organizations have adequate staff and volunteers.
