This Thursday, April 11, there will be a Planning & Zoning Commission hearing for a variance to enable conversion of two barns to residential use. The variance is required because the structures lie well inside the 100-foot setback from Bridger Creek. This makes the structures, which predate zoning, nonconforming, and therefore it is not permissible to substantially alter them and change their use.

Sadly, this is another tale of “build first and ask for forgiveness.” Construction commenced without permits, in spite of written notice from the Planning Department that permits were required. The Commission has again failed to take any meaningful enforcement action. This is hard to understand, because the Commission has recently taken enforcement action against other landowners for less serious violations, and is ignoring the very precedent that it spent our tax dollars to set in the MT Supreme Court in the Theken barn case.

This is the second time this variance has come up for review; the first was in January. BCPOA unanimously opposed the variance then, and now. Testimony from the January hearing is in BCPOA comment Petty CUP 2013-01-09.

The plain language of the zoning states that a variance may be granted only when, due to special circumstances of the property, strict application of the zoning deprives a landowner of privileges that others enjoy. In this case, there is no such deprivation, because the property has several acres of buildable land outside of setbacks. Therefore the letter of the law should prevail and the stream setback should be respected.

If you wish to express your opinion on this matter, you can attend Thursday’s hearing, or send a brief note to the Bridger Canyon Planning & Zoning Commission regarding the Petty Variance, at planning@gallatin.mt.gov.

The following memo details problems with permitting and enforcement of the project to date:

BCPOA-Petty 2013-04-09

BCPOA-Petty 2013-04-09 Exhibits 1-10

BCPOA-Petty 2013-04-09 Exhibit 11 Theken decision

Testimony for the upcoming hearing will be posted here as it becomes available.

BCPOA-Petty 2013-04-09
BCPOA-Petty 2013-04-09 Exhibits 1-10
BCPOA-Petty 2013-04-09 Exhibit 11 Theken decision

BCPOA comment Petty variance 2013-04-11

BCPOA comment Petty variance 2013-04-22

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