Tour Examines Options for Protecting Rural Lands and Lifestyles Around Livingston

Tour Examines Options for Protecting Rural Lands and Lifestyles Around Livingston

City annexation policy needs to be updated to address residents’ concerns.

 On a beautiful October day, local landowners, officials, experts and Directors of Friends of Park County, (right) participated in an educational tour addressing the issue of how to protect the rural lands and lifestyle around the City of Livingston.Part of the motivation for the tour were concerns by residents of the two-mile belt (or “donut”) surrounding Livingston that the city might annex and zone for development.

Livingston’s annexation policy needs to be updated to protect rural lands around Livingston, consistently with City’s Growth Policy.

In the past twenty years Livingston has annexed large areas around the city, about as much land as was in the City before the annexations.  They are shown on the map at left (Exhibit 3.3 in the City’s 2021 Growth Policy) in light green.  More recent annexations (Green Acres, Montague) have been smaller but controversial.These annexed areas include the island of land – at the western I-90 interchange separated from the rest of the city – that has been the subject of the controversial Mountain View commercial development subdivision.Also shown are areas in burgundy, which in the draft of the Growth Policy were identified as future annexation areas. But that map and text were changed, to state: “These areas do not indicate that the City wishes to expand through annexation, nor does it ‘pre-approve’ future growth areas for annexation. Likewise, areas not included on this map does not preclude an area from being annexed. Annexation concerns should be addressed in the City's Annexation Policy and should reflect the community's desires as to the location for growth.” Livingston Growth Policy page 20.But Livingston doesn’t have a current “annexation policy.”  What it does have is a 2007 annexation plan that reflects the City’s past era of rapid annexation.There was a sharp change in direction in the City’s 2021 Growth Policy away from annexation and low-density sprawl, to emphasize compact growth, infill and redevelopment.Here is just one example of the new policy:Growth Goal 3.1: Prioritize infill over expansion by taking advantage of existing and planned infrastructure, such as transportation, energy, water, and sewer facilities.  Livingston Growth Policy page 27.The new Growth Policy includes a lengthy appendix (Appendix A) devoted just to the lands, resources, issues and future of the ETJ, including this map of Future Land Use which shows most of the ET as “Pastoral/Open Space.”The text associated with the map states:“The majority of the ETJ is expected to continue to remain Pastoral and Open Space.”  Page ETJ-19.(However, the Future Land Use Map also designates land for city-style development in the ETJ, in the areas colored purple (industrial) yellow (residential) and pink (mixed use) such as residential subdivisions, apartment buildings, office buildings, motels and hotels, storage units, convenience stores, etc. The areas colored yellow, purple and pink appear almost as large as the city itself.) 

Livingston already has enough land for new homes for a 50% increase in population on buildable lands inside the city limits.

In 2021 Friends of Park County reviewed the city’s land supplies and determined that the city has more than enough land inside the current city limits to accommodate a 50% increase in housing on vacant land that is flat enough to be suitable for housing. This does not count the housing that could be built through infill and redevelopment. You can find that analysis here.

Landowners in the rural lands around Livingston can create their own zoning district to protect rural lands, resources and lifestyle.

Montana state law allows 60% of the landowners in an area to come together to create their own zoning district, a bottoms-up approach which has been used by landowners in several parts of Park County.During the tour, the participants visited the Springhill Zoning District, a nationally award-winning resident-initiated zoning district.  Randy Johnson, a retired Gallatin County planner who worked with the Springhill landowners, described how the zoning district was designed by them to balance the opportunity for them to develop some of their land while conserving much of the rest for farming, ranching and wildlife.The participants also heard about the opportunity for qualified landowners to receive tax breaks and in some cases cash benefits for agreeing to permanent conservation easements (limitations) on lands important for ranching, wildlife or other reasons.

Next steps:

Friends of Park County will continue to offer information about how implementation of Livingston’s Growth Policy can protect residents of the rural lands around Livingston from unnecessary annexation and zoning and to consider whether or how a resident-initiated zoning district and conservation easements might be deployed to meet the concerns and needs of residents in the ETJ.