DEER LODGE – The Powell County Planning Board will reconsider their December decision regarding the Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for a proposed gravel pit on Cottonwood Lakes Road at their Feb. 9 meeting. While written comments will be accepted and considered until the meeting, no public comment will be taken at the meeting.
Frank Tabish of LHC Inc. in Kalispell, Mont. applied for the CUP with Powell County to operate a 26.5-acre gravel pit within 160 acres four miles east of Highway 83 and south of Cottonwood Lakes Road. Seeley Lake resident Gary Lewis, owner of Deer Creek Aggregates, LLC, will be leasing the pit after it has been developed.
After a four and a half hour hearing and two motions on the table that ended in a tie, the Powell County Planning Board was unable to approve or deny the CUP at their Dec. 9 meeting. According to Powell County Planner Carl Hamming, the permit was not granted.
According to the draft minutes of the Powell County Planning Board Jan. 5 meeting, Powell County Attorney Lewis Smith informed the planning board that they cannot deny a gravel pit CUP without any residentially zoned, adjacent landowners. This was one of the main arguments against the proposed pit by Double Arrow landowners. Even though they are an adjacent, residential subdivision to the proposed gravel pit, they are not officially zoned residential by Missoula County.
The board voted unanimously to reconsider their Dec. 8 vote at their Feb. 9 meeting.
Powell County Planner Carl Hamming said that because this is the same CUP, they do not need to open the meeting to public comment prior to the vote. However, he will forward all written comments to the planning board prior to their Feb. 9 meeting.
Comments can be mailed to Carl Hamming at Powell County Planning Department, 409 Missouri Ave., Suite 101, Deer Lodge, MT 59722 or email chamming@powellcountymt.gov
The meeting will be held Feb. 9 at 1 p.m. at the Meeting Room at William K. Kohrs Memorial Library in Deer Lodge.
If the CUP is approved, LHC Inc.’s next step is to get permits from the U.S. Forest Service and Montana Department of Environmental Quality. Comments can be sent to the Seeley Lake Ranger District, 3583 MT Highway 83 N, Seeley Lake, MT, 59868 and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality Coal & Opencut Mining Bureau, PO Box 200901, Helena, MT 59620.
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