The Ravalli County Commissioners gave final plat approval to the first phase of the Sand Hill Ridge Major Subdivision, east of Florence, on Monday, July 23. It’s been a long time coming. It was conditionally approved by the Commissioners on September 6, 2011. In a settlement agreement reached in May 2014 over a lawsuit instituted by the applicants, the conditions for final approval were spelled out.
One of those conditions was waived by the Ravalli County Park Board in a letter dated December 13, 2017, in which the board relinquished its desire for acquisition of park land from the development of the subdivision.
In the applicant’s request for final approval, it states, “The applicant has been unable to meet Mitigating Condition #14 as any shared road maintenance agreement with neighboring subdivisions has not been successfully negotiated.” An affidavit was included explaining the efforts made to meet the requirement. Despite the failed effort, the Ravalli County Planning Department determined that “the mitigating conditions of approval, requirements of final plat approval and the Settlement Agreement have all been met.” It recommended approval.
Phase 1 of the Sand Hill Ridge Major Subdivision consists of eleven lots with three common areas and two park areas and is being developed by Mike Hendrickson and Paul Wilson of BSDG–Eight Mile LLC.
The planning department found that the developers met the mitigation requirement since it only required them to seek an overall agreement with all the other subdivisions in the area on a shared road maintenance and get either a yes or a no. The applicants did get a “no” from one of the subdivisions after five or six meetings, but were unable to get a yes or a no from another. They claim it is impossible at this point because there is no identified party to come to an agreement with.
Planning Department director Terry Nelson said that the condition simply required that they make the attempt and get a no or a yes on an over-all agreement with everyone, but if that was not possible, to proceed with an independent road management agreement with adjacent portions of the road, which they have done.
Deputy County Attorney Howard Recht agreed, stating, “I think it’s a fair conclusion that the absence of a ‘yes’ is a ‘no’.”
After public comment the focus shifted to a couple of other concerns.
Carlotta Grandstaff, speaking for Bitterrooters for Planning, raised the issue of public notice. She said the notice for the meeting was not sent out until 3:45 on Thursday afternoon. That gave her organization and the public in general only eight hours, she said, to gather information to present at the meeting.
“This subdivision has such a checkered history,” she said, “you should have known that the public would need a little time to prepare.” She asked for a 60-day extension.
Grandstaff also noted that the law provides that new information may be presented at each phase of development as it is approved and the public needs time to gather information.
Recht said that in his opinion the notice given met the requirements of the law and the commissioners’ policy.
Recht noted that the statutes governing phased developments was not enacted until 2017, whereas the subdivision got conditional approval in 2014. He said, basically, that he considered the approval of the preliminary plat in 2014 to be the approval of the Phase 1 development based on public input at the time and subsequent phases would each have a public hearing to consider new information.
Still not exactly clear to Commissioner Jeff Burrows, the commissioner asked, “So, should we have a hearing on Phase 1?”
“It’s kind of a mixed bag,” said Recht. “Under current regulations… Let me back up… Under the old law, you couldn’t require new conditions. But our regulations, if you are going to do a phased development, you might want to waive that statute and allow for new information.”
Recht said that the issue of phased development came up in the Legacy Ranch litigation. “Then this new statute’s upshot, it’s really difficult to give a definitive answer. You approved a subdivision and the developer met the conditions of Phase 1.” He said the law requiring subsequent public input more clearly applies to subsequent phases.
Commissioner Greg Chilcott said, “Phase 1 is well beyond comment, it is at completion. We are simply looking to see if the conditions have been met. It is not only out of the barn, the barn doors are shut.”
Commissioner Doug Schallenberger said, “You don’t go back and change the rules on somebody.”
“So, Howard, do we have the ability to consider new information on this phase?” Burrows asked the attorney.
“There’s a pretty good argument that you do not,” said Recht. “There is not a definitive ruling on exactly how the law applies to subdivisions that were previously approved.” He said there was a risk of a lawsuit either way they go on the issue. The developer could say, “I played by the rules, now what are you doing?”
No new information was accepted and the motion to approve the final plat for Phase 1 was approved unanimously.