The debate over streamside setbacks is heating up in Ravalli County, even as the discussion in Missoula County seems to have stalled. Whatever the county, efforts to keep new buildings a reasonable distance away from riverbanks are sure to receive more attention as western Montana's population continues to grow and attract new development.
It comes as no surprise that many of the people attracted to western Montana by its beautiful mountain vistas, lakes and streams want to build their homes along those same waters. Waterfront properties are highly sought-after and therefore very valuable. Riparian areas are valuable, too - both as a fragile environmental resource and as critical habitat for fish, birds and many other forms of wildlife.
Streamside setback regulations are designed to prevent a few unscrupulous property owners from shoehorning new buildings into fragile river corridors, therefore helping to preserve the very features that brought them to the water's edge in the first place.
Earlier this year, Missoula County's Office of Rural Initiatives began taking the first steps toward drafting a set of streamside setback regulations. At about the same time, Ravalli County commissioners created a special committee to examine streamside setbacks and come up with a zoning proposal for the county's Planning Board.
That committee, which has been holding regular public meetings every month since April, is composed of 17 people representing a wide variety of interests. They are scientists and biologists, conservationists and farmers, engineers and land surveyors, Realtors and property owners. Not long ago, this eclectic group of people submitted its first set of proposed interim setback regulations, the details of which are now being examined and argued by county residents and commissioners.
Now would not be too soon for residents of Missoula County to put some thought into how we, too, might like to go about drafting a similar set of zoning recommendations. Perhaps we, too, should put together a special committee or task force devoted to examining streamside setbacks and making recommendations based on Missoula County's unique needs.
After all, we will want to make sure that setback regulations address the competing interests of property rights and the environment fairly. It wouldn't be right for a regulation to render certain properties unbuildable - and therefore valueless - because the required setback didn't leave enough room for a building.
Missoula County's Office of Rural Initiatives will probably return to the issue of streamside setbacks within the next month or two. In the meantime, the Clark Fork Coalition - the nonprofit group that has been working with the Office of Rural Initiatives to research setback regulations - will be organizing an ongoing public education effort through the winter. We encourage Missoula County residents to take advantage of this opportunity to learn more about streamside setbacks as they prepare for what is sure to be a riveting public discussion about zoning regulations.
The debate in Ravalli County, which is far from over, has already shown us that it's important to start this process as early as possible. Because all the while we're debating, our lovely slice of Montana is growing ever more crowded.
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