The Butte-Silver Bow Planning Board held a public hearing on July 31, 2025, to receive public comment on the proposed comprehensive zoning code rewrite. The meeting featured a detailed presentation by Director Julia Crane, followed by extensive public testimony and board discussion. No votes were taken; the board is to deliberate further at a working meeting on August 28, 2025.
All right. Welcome everyone to tonight's planning board meeting. Today is July thirty first. So first we'll take a roll call of members. Mike McLeod. Josh O'Neill, Mark Garf, Margot Enns, and Maisie Salzer. All right. We do have a quorum tonight. All right, for for folks here in the audience. Our our meeting tonight will be will consist of a presentation, and then we will call up any member of the public that would like to make a comment on the presentation or any um any part of the zoning ordinance. We'll call for proponents and opponents, and then we will have a discussion among the board. Okay. This growth policy, which is now called the Comprehensive Plan, was adopted by the Butte Silver Bow Council of Commissioners in 2021. This document had a significant public process that was attended to as part of that. And a number of the rain is very distracting, by the way, I'll just add that for a second. That was held to understand the public's interest in the future land use priorities of Butte Silverbow. It includes not only a vision statement for our community, but it selects specific provisions that will formulate and support the future development of our community. One of which those goals is the rewrite of the growth policy. Under Montana statute, comprehensive plans are the future land use planning document that is utilized to guide land use planning in the state, and land use regulations which are applied through a zoning ordinance are required by law to comply with those provisions. So to give general context and goals of that process, the code rewrite addresses the disconnect between the existing code and the historic and desired land use and development patterns that have been communicated by our public through the public processes. It ensures that the zoning districts in the community and their standards facilitate the desired development and redevelopment priorities expressed through the process. In addition, it improves the clarity and transparency in the regulations, and it updates antiquated definitions to resolve contradictions that are found within the previous or current code. And generally promoting a better mix of uses and incentivizing good development that aligns with Butte Silver Bow's comprehensive plan. Following the adoption of the Butte Silver Bow Comprehensive Plan in 2021, the planning department initiated a update to the process by conducting stakeholder meetings and engagement and followed by surveys, analysis, and an audit of the existing zoning code. The result of that was an audit document that identifies the key priorities of the community in updating the code. Primary about among them is the transparency and the regulatory expectations that are provided to the community among use contradictions and other challenges that lend to difficulty when development does occur in our community. The code rewrite formally began in July of 2023, but following staffing changes, both in the planning department and within the Orion planning and design team, there have been delays in the drafting process. The code draft did begin again in January of 2024. And it the working draft was presented to you initially June 26th of this year and is in the middle of a public process to solicit public input to shape the regulation further. As part of the audit outcome, a table of contents that generally reorganizes the code in a much more structured way was provided. The structural highlights are an organized document with ease of navigation and clarity aided by the table of contents. It combines both new and improved additions to the existing content, and it is designed to align with the Butte Silverbow Comprehensive Plan. Chapter one of the new code is generally focused around key provisions. Within the existing code, the primarily focuses on title interpretation and purpose, establishing minimum requirements for the general welfare of welfare of the public, and it addresses conflicts with other ordinances and rules. However, the code does require to have a does require a greater connection with state law and the Butte Silver Bow Comprehensive Plan in a much more explicit manner. Therefore, Chapter 1 retains the core purposes of promoting health safety and general welfare, but it explicitly links the ordinance to the Montana Code for authority and compliance. It emphasizes implementation of the Butte Silver Bow Comprehensive Plan. It introduces detailed rules for interpretation of district boundaries and how we as staff resolve conflicts, and it introduces detailed rules for interpreting zoning district boundaries and the resolution of conflicts when considering those boundaries. Chapter 2 focuses on the applicability and conformity matters of the case. Sorry to interrupt. I think you're one slide behind. I apologize for that. The existing code concepts were integrated within other chapters, such as the general provisions or specific district regulations, and no one chapter existed for applicability and conformity, leading to potential confusion and inconsistent application. The new code directs a chapter that explicitly outlines the jurisdiction of the ordinance to the zoned areas. It concludes clearly defines compliance requirements for land use and structures. It emphasizes the uniformity within districts and the conformity with other laws, and it clarifies that which is more restrictive in provision to govern in the case of conflict, and also includes transitional rules or guidance to manage the shift from the current code into the new code. Chapter three zoning districts. In the existing code, zoning districts are defined in district chapters that are very heavy with text, redundancies, and contradictions. The existing districts were poorly aligned to the current and accepted comprehensive plan, and in general do not align with both the historic and desired modern development plans. For example, Butte existed and was developed far far earlier than the 1976 zoning code, and over that time developed in a haphazard and irregular pattern that resulted in the development pattern you see today in the historic area of the community.