Stevensville gets state help with growth policy update

by John Dowd

On Tuesday, April 29, Stevensville’s Planning and Zoning Board met to discuss the town growth policy update and the next steps in the process. They also elected a new chairperson for the board. Tamara Ross took on the position as the chair, elected unanimously, and led the board into discussions looking at the release of a few surveys. These surveys will help inform the board on community interests, and are standard for the update of a community growth policy.

The town was contacted last fall by the Montana Department of Commerce (DOC) Community Technical Assistance Program. According to Dani Arps, a planner with the Community Technical Assistance Program, in 2023 the DOC identified multiple rural Montana communities that would benefit from updated growth policies. Stevensville was one of those selected to receive financial and advisory assistance. The communities the DOC looked at were generally ones in areas facing a lot of potential growth.

Additionally, Arps said these policies are supposed to be updated every five years. However, Stevensville has not updated its growth policy since 2016. Arps explained that having an updated growth policy is important on numerous levels for a town, not least of which because it will make the town more competitive for grants and external funding sources. According to Stevensville Mayor Bob Michalson, an updated growth policy is the “number one thing grants ask for,” and the town is constantly asked about it when they do apply for funding or reach out to firms or bid for projects.

The Community Technical Assistance Program is meant to help provide resources for community planning statewide, and, “spread out the help, evenly,” as Arps described. The program allocated $30,000 for this project in Stevensville, which Arps said is pretty standard to update a growth policy. However, she wanted to highlight that this project will come at no cost to the community, and comes from all taxpayer dollars from state and federal government, not specifically the Stevensville area.

The growth policy update will look at everything from sidewalks and trees, to other issues the town is currently facing. It will also take into consideration things like natural resources, potential future land use, utilities, housing needs and more. According to Arps, she lived in the Stevensville area for a few years and knows about the big important events the town holds in the summer. She said it is important to include those in the policy as well. The update will also absorb things from the last growth policy, saving money by not having to start from scratch.

Arps wanted to express that these growth policies are not regulatory documents, but guides for future growth and development. They do not carry force of law, but provide a framework to see the view of the community come to fruition and give them a voice in their developmental path. Arps added that this is “not the government coming in to tell people what to do.” She said they are there only to inform and provide resources so the community can address its problems the way it wants. 

The Community Technical Assistance Program provides communities with the tools and information to make sure the process happens correctly and without unforeseen consequences. “For a lot of small communities, there’s just not enough capacity, or funding, to do everything in house,” said Arps. That process is also very in depth and prolonged, with Arps saying it will take about a year to complete.

The Community Technical Assistance Program contracted Great West Engineering to help with the policy update. According to her, engineering firms are often brought on to provide technical expertise. 

Last week, the Stevensville Planning and Zoning Board looked at examples of surveys from other towns like Fort Benton, Deer Lodge and Philipsburg. These examples were meant to help the board decide on how they want to go about designing and applying their own surveys. Other town examples provided options on things like layout, question types and more. They are also considering putting the survey online, as some towns have done.

These surveys will ask questions like: “How long have you lived in town,” “Is there anything you would like to see,” and, “What is your age and occupation?” The board will pick out questions they like and make suggestions for new ones.

The survey will focus on the elderly and very young. The youth will primarily include school children ages 15 to 18 years old. According to Mayor Michalson, this is important because, “It gets the kids involved in their government.” Once fine-tuned, the board will send the survey to the DOC to review and to look for suggestions. 

Right now, the growth policy update is only in the early stages. Throughout the process the board will fine tune the town’s already existing growth policy, and update it to modern needs. Arps believes the Community Technical Assistance Program will be able to “give some tools to the town to keep people engaged,” and “put some faith back in local government.” She also said, “One of the things with projects like this is that we want to see people come together,” adding that she hopes to “keep that momentum going.”