In addition, the commissioners will decide whether to ask voters in November to pay for $15.8 million of the proposed $23 million emergency operation center slated for construction on Mullan Road.
Here's a look at the lineup in more detail:
The idea is to have tourists who visit Seeley Lake in the summer help pay for the town's infrastructure needs, said Councilman Walt Hill.
Food sold in a grocery store and gas are not considered luxury items, but restaurants, hotels, sporting goods and alcohol would all be taxed. Supporters are still trying to define what is considered a “luxury” item.
Business owners who sell luxury items would receive a 5 percent kickback from the total amount of tax revenue they collect to administer the program.
Supporters gathered more than enough signatures to submit petitions to the county in June. The petitions request the county commissioners place the resort tax before voters.
If adopted, the community would likely form a committee of Seeley Lake residents who live inside the resort district to administer and control the tax and decide where the revenue goes.
Seeley Lake voters barely approved a mill levy request in May to pay for a new water system. This tax, if adopted, should defray some of those costs, Hill said.
- County commissioners also will decide whether to adopt a request by Placid Lake cabin owners to zone lakeshore property at one dwelling per acre.
The request conflicts with zoning being discussed in Seeley Lake as the community council tries to put together a comprehensive growth plan for the entire Clearwater drainage, which includes Placid Lake. Though the growth plan remains fluid, the council recommends in most cases one dwelling per five acres on lakeshore property at all lakes in and around Seeley Lake.
The citizen-initiated zoning request was submitted to Missoula County almost a year ago - before the community council and Plum Creek Timber Co. negotiated a plan to put dense development near Placid Lake to prevent the timber company from developing other lands designated as resource rich.
Ultimately, the community council did not endorse the plan because of the Placid Lake cabin owners' objections, and both the council and Plum Creek remain in discussion about what to do regarding growth in areas surrounding the town.
There are two reasons it took this long for Placid Lake's zoning proposal to come before the commissioners, said Mary McCrea, a senior planner for the county. The first had to do with the process and figuring out whether it was an amendment to an old zoning region, or whether it created a new one.
The second: The planning department has been understaffed and there's no statutory deadline for these types of requests, unlike subdivision applications, McCrea said.
The density around Placid Lake is currently at one dwelling per acre, said Dick Ainsworth, a cabin owner and supporter of the zoning request.
Zoning Placid Lake a density less than what currently exists would make all cabin owners out of compliance with any new regulations, but all of them would be grandfathered in - so would not be affected by the new regulations.
“It makes no sense to me or any of us up there,” said Ainsworth. “Why don't you zone to fit what's there?”
Seeley Lake Council Chairman John Haufler said it's about the principle. The council feels one dwelling per five acres is the appropriate density in most cases for lakeshore property. Concern stems mostly from septic tanks and their proximity to the lake, Haufler said.
The council wrote a letter to the commissioners asking that they hold off on zoning Placid Lake until the entire Seeley Lake growth plan is complete. The growth plan has been in the works for two years, but Haufler hopes the council can wrap things up within the next several months.
Ainsworth, on the other hand, would be disappointed if the commissioners took no action.
“That's what they do when they can't decide what they want to do,” he said.
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