Madison County Absent Planning Office

Pivotal Moment Puts All New Subdivision Applications on Hold

By David Nolt, 6-26-07

Illustrating both the strength and potential vulnerability of planning in Montana’s Madison County, the Madison County Planning Board held its last meeting with Planning Office Director Doris Fischer and Planner Staci Beecher.

Both Fischer and Beecher will effectively resign at the end of June leaving the growing county with the difficult task of finding quality replacements while keeping up with a steady influx of new subdivision applications.

Earlier this month in preparation for Fischer and Beecher’s departure, the Madison County Commission passed a resolution placing a moratorium on new subdivision applications for an interim period through September 2007.

The county, which contains the legendary Madison River Valley as well as the booming resort areas of Moonlight Basin, the Yellowstone Club and the Mountain Village in the Big Sky Resort, approved 382 new lots since 2006. At the Monday night meeting in the historic Virginia City Courthouse, the Planning Board reviewed two subdivision applications, which would add a total of 251 new lots in the Big Sky area alone.

In an emotional tribute to Doris Fischer, who has been in the Madison County Planning Office for nine years, Planning Board President Ann Schwend acknowledged the pivotal and difficult task ahead while thanking Fischer for “taking us light years ahead in our planning process.”

Though rumors of burnout due to too heavy a workload circulated, Fischer says her decision to leave comes after about two to three years of careful deliberation to streamline her planning work and is not because of overload. Beecher will be leaving for career advancement in the Gillette County Planning Office in Wyoming. Though neither cite an oppressive workload as their reason for leaving, both planners acknowledge the Planning Office is under pressure and in need of both more staff and resources to manage an influx of growth in the county not seen since its days as a booming mining town and territorial capitol in the mid to late 19th century.

The June 15 Madison County Resolution No. 16 states, “the temporary lack of staff will make it impossible for the Planning Office, Planning Board, and County Commissioners to carry out their normal responsibilities associated with the review of development proposals.”

The Planning Office held a special meeting on June 15 to develop a transition plan. In accordance with the plan, the office will continue to work on existing subdivision applications, but any new applications will be dated and postponed until the office is able to handle the workload. In the interim period after Fischer’s and Beecher’s last days (both on June 30), the county will be hiring professional consultants to help finish existing work. Fischer says bringing in the consultants should not cost the county taxpayers any extra money, as the majority of the contracting funds will come from developer-paid development review fees.

Testament to the pressures on the planning office, the transition plan also contained a budget request to the Madison County Commission to fund and implement a new “Planner Two” position. The proposed new planner position would focus on Big Sky and would ideally have a part-time office there, according to the Planning Office.

The five-hour long meeting Monday night meeting highlighted this need. The Planning Board reviewed Thumb Development’s proposed Lone Moose Meadows Overall Development Plan, which calls for 153 new lots in Big Sky adjacent to around 500 lots in Gallatin County. The controversial development elicited many opposing written public comments as well as the attendance and testimony of several adjacent landowners at the Monday meeting.

Those testifying said the developers had a record of ignoring environmental codes, giving empty promises of working with adjacent landowners and claimed the development didn’t honestly address traffic issues and would infringe on their property rights by interrupting the ski-in/ski-out access to their homes.

Though the developers said they planned to appease the landowners’ grievances, the planning board referred to the development’s Overall Development Plan as “abysmally bad,” “one of the most questionable projects we’ve seen,” and “totally inadequate,” all of which creates more work for the Planning Office. “Much more information is needed on this project,” Fischer stated.

Also at the Monday meeting, a representative from the Moonlight Basin Ranch project presented the Planning Board with a request for approval of 98 new lots. The representative joked that a year ago he told the board he did not foresee the need for any new lots in the area, but that economic pressures—a formidable force emanating from Big Sky—demanded more development.

Doris Fischer says development in Big Sky puts major demands on the Madison County Planning Office.

“We have done quite well with the staff resources available to us, but certainly we recognize the demands of the office require a higher level of staffing,” Fischer explains. “I think it is accurate to say with three planners on staff we can more thoroughly cover our bases.”

Planner Staci Beecher echoes Fischer and says a new planner to deal with Big Sky is sorely needed.

“The demands increase daily,” Beecher says. “I don’t know how long we would be able to go without having another planner in the office. So far, the quality of work [in the Planning Office] has been acceptable, but things could fall through the cracks…the level of detail in the review process could decrease.”

Madison County Commission Chair Dave Schulz is also concerned about the office, and he says the commissioners are looking for “a particularly special person to understand Madison County’s…broad demographics.”

“The resolution [No. 16] addresses the issues temporarily,” Schulz explains. “Personally, I’m very concerned the resolution…will not meet the goals or intentions…I think it’s going to put a tremendous burden on whoever the next planner is.”

The commissioners are currently in the process of interviewing two applicants for planning director, but it has not yet begun interviews to fill Beecher’s position, nor is there any certainty whether or not there will be money in the budget allocated to fund the much-needed Planner Two position. Schulz supports funding the Planner Two position, but at the Monday meeting he urged people to realize the growing demands for new staff and resources in departments such as the sheriff’s department and the GIS department.

“It’s very important we all take the approach that the resolution is a document we all agreed to and move forward,” Schulz urged the Planning Board. “But there will also be some pressure to take steps outside of that…We need to take it one step at a time as we move forward.”

Schulz also said he hoped developers would appreciate the situation and return the same patience he feels the Planning Office has extended to the development community.

The close of the meeting drew many tears from members of those in attendance, and one board member described it as the beginning of “a different era.” The Planning Board thanked Fischer and Beecher for their service and said Fischer’s leadership helped prepare them for the future. Fischer said she is confident the Madison County Planning Office and Board will “fly higher” after her, and expressed her gratitude to every member of the board.

As for the future of planning and growth in Montana’s cherished Madison County, Fischer says any planning must reflect the community’s vision and balance the unique character of a county built on traditions and history with the new demands of a county with the highest percentage of residential landowners in the state who receive their tax bill out of state—53 percent.

“I’d say we need to do more…” Fischer says of the challenges ahead. “There needs to be more effort to manage growth, to put in more tools to manage growth and apply them. It needs to be a community effort…to accept the tools and to take deliberate steps to guide the growth. We need to do more, and I think there is a lot of support in the community for that.”

For information on the Madison County Growth Policy or Madison County’s “Code of the New West,” click here.

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