by John Dowd
On Wednesday, October 22, the Stevensville Planning and Zoning Board held an open house to present information they have been collecting, as well as survey results and community statistics. All this information is going into the new Stevensville Town Growth Policy update that they have been working on for the better part of the last year. They’ve received assistance from the Montana Department of Commerce (DOC) and Great West Engineering. Representatives from the Town and both the DOC and the engineering firm were present at the open house.
Dani Arps, a planner with the Community Technical Assistance Program with the DOC, has been working with Stevensville since the beginning of the project to help guide the board through the process. She spoke about the importance of doing events like this to gather community feedback.
At the open house, there were several information boards displaying issues faced by the community, and possible solutions. Some boards also had statistics, and there were large printed out maps and more. Community attendees were encouraged to grab sticky notes and colored dots, and mark their feedback on everything, to help bring more input into the process.
Community members add their feedback to the posted information boards at last week’s Stevensville Growth Policy Update open house. Photo by John Dowd.
The displays included data from the last U.S. Census, which helped to provide general statistics about Stevensville for the policy update. Arps wanted to add that this growth policy is not a legal or regulatory document, but helps to inform why and how a community approaches various needs.
According to Arps, they also showcased some of this material at the Creamery Picnic to get feedback. Arps said, “We just want as much public feedback as we can because we don’t want every growth policy to be the same.” She, and others with the DOC, help communities across Montana develop growth policies.
Those dots and markups were the primary objective for the entities. That way, they can fine-tune community needs and the way the community would like to see these things remedied. According to Arps, it can be a challenge drawing feedback from a community. However, Arps added that there is no such thing as too much, and they want everyone to chime in. “Every single comment is important,” said Arps.
Great West Engineering is providing professional expertise and in helping to quantify all the feedback, which can be a huge task.
According to Kevin Angland, a planner with Great West Engineering, they take all of the feedback and have to find a way to make it actionable. Some of the feedback may not necessarily be actionable, or it may be ill-informed concern. According to Arps and Angland, this can actually be a great opportunity to identify gaps in education and communication within the community.
One example of this was a comment from the community survey on more participation in community events and the difficulty finding information on those events. According to Arps, those kinds of things are not usually in the purview of a municipality. However, this could be a way the Town website could be improved, and create a more integral relationship between the Town of Stevensville and community members.
Angland spoke on how they process the massive amounts of information they collect, and said their first step is usually to categorize it, and make goals based on that feedback. Then, Great West Engineering will speak with the planning and zoning board on the feedback. During that time they will go through it piece by piece, issue by issue, like a “heat map.”
According to Angland, after a growth policy is finished, Great West Engineering will also help find financial opportunities such as grants, foundations and more, on projects that are decided to take priority.
Angland said, when looking at Stevensville community concerns specifically, there was an obvious consensus on a few issues. These included housing, which Angland described as a “mixed bag.”
During the open house, it was apparent that people knew that there needed to be some fix for a lack of housing, especially affordable housing. However, Angland specified, it seemed there was also some split as far as the type of housing and where to put it. In speaking with community members that attended, some were concerned about the prospect of putting group affordable housing in town, as it could drop property values and take away from the small community feel that Stevensville residents appreciate. There were suggestions of planning affordable housing on the highways, or just outside of town, in order to maintain the current perceived ‘small town charm’ while addressing the need for more housing.
On the other side of that, there were voices for the need to build that housing in town, and the potential for a greater tax base from inside the town limits. This would bring more income for projects, including essential ones like infrastructure, and superficial ones like beautification.
Arps explained that towns and communities need to be specific with their goals and objectives, because this can make them more competitive for grants and other resources. The better they do creating their policy, the more it can bring them to the top of the list to receive help. That takes major weight off the shoulders of local taxpayers.
The DOC and the Stevensville Planning and Zoning Board also looked at the old growth policy in order to track previous goals and see that those needs are still being brought to a resolution. Some are even moved to the next phase, and this policy update process tries to keep all that on track.
For those looking for more information, they can speak to the Stevensville Planning and Zoning Board for suggestions. Interested parties can contact the Town of Stevensville for information on board meeting dates and times. According to Arps, there is also a virtual option, in the form of a video group call every two weeks between various partners in the project, including the DOC, Great West Engineering and the board. Arps said everyone is welcome to participate in that, and again, more information can be found by contacting the Town of Stevensville.