Zoning in the Root I.
Stevensville - Following the loud and clear public declaration last year of the need for county wide planning and zoning, the new Ravalli County Commissioners, James Rokosch, Kathleen Driscoll and Carlotta Grandstaff, have pushed the process into high gear.
The Ravalli County Planning Department, in association with the two consultant firms DTM Consulting and Geum Environmental Consulting Inc., have started with an analysis of the county’s existing conditions in order to model the land area that is suitable for development. I can only assume that the next step in the process would be to use the model as a base for public participation and professional evaluation, which would then modify the base analysis towards a final zoning plan. While all of this is a bit technical, the zoning team did put together a decent power point presentation explaining each layer of the land suitability model. The working land suitability model can be viewed by clicking its link, be aware that it does take some time to load. (Other maps and documents can be viewed on Ravalli County’s website)
This is the first step towards a comprehensive growth plan for Ravalli County. While the final plan will likely not look the same as the suitability model, this analysis does a good job of easily ruling out many areas as future locations for development. It reduces the amount of land needed to be evaluated for zoning to a more manageable amount. Now the public and experts alike can focus on the intermediate to best lands, particularly those around existing urban density and infrastructure.
Land use planning and transit must go together, for it is only common sense to direct residential and commercial development into areas already served by existing transportation infrastructure. Transit is also much more efficient when there is more density. If a majority of the future growth in the Bitterroot Valley is focused around the existing density of Hamilton, Stevensville and other Ravalli communities, then a future transit system in the valley will be far more efficient and affordable. The beauty of more density is, quite literally, the beauty of a landscape with less sprawl, and this is of great concern to Ravalli County residents. This is a continuing planning process, and I will post more on this issue as information and inspiration coincide.
- Benjamin
February 23rd, 2008 at 5:23 pm
“Land use planning and transit must go together.”
I’m glad you brought this up. I hear lots of good discussions over what to do about the I-93 corridor (including your post last week) and I know that the county is undergoing this huge zoning rewrite at the same time. Do you know the extent of the coordination between these two projects? I agree with you that they are both basically approaching the same challenge from different angles.