SB382 - Montana Land Use Planning Act

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SB382 - The Montana Land Use Planning Act

leg.mt.gov

https://leg.mt.gov/bills/2023/billhtml/SB0382.htm

Montana’s land use and planning statutes are sorely outdated, inconsistent with each other, duplicative, and bureaucratic. Local governments, landowners, and developers must currently follow this slow, expensive, and risky process set forth in the statutes.

This is a bill developed by your local governments & planners, supported by the Montana League of Cities & Towns, to update and modernize our current statutes in a manner that addresses identified land use issues while protecting local decision making. A Montana solution by Montanans.

SB 382 will make it faster, cheaper, and easier to get more housing built in Montana.

ㅤ	It ﬁxes the process. The analysis and public participation take place at the front end of the process and development consistent with that planning gets administrative review and approval.
	The bill only applies to urban counties and cities, all others may opt in.
	It requires local governments to plan for the housing units needed for their existing and projected population growth.
	It requires local governments to enact zoning reforms that allow and encourages more housing.

SB 382 creates a three-step process for development review, mitigation, and approval:

Applies to 16 local jurisdictions in Montana – 6 counties over 70,000 population (Cascade, Gallatin, Flathead, Lewis & Clark, Missoula, and Yellowstone), and 10 municipalities over 5,000 population (Belgrade, Billings, Bozeman, Columbia Falls, Great Falls, Helena, Kalispell, Laurel, Missoula, and Whiteﬁsh). All other local governments use existing land use (Section 5)

Each jurisdiction must draft and adopt a land use plan with public comment and participation within 3 The bill provides the process for adopting the plan and deﬁnes the required contents of the plan, including a future land use map. Every jurisdiction must identify the number of housing units it needs to accommodate its population projections over the next 20 years. (Sections 6-17)

After the plan is adopted, then the jurisdiction must adopt zoning. The bill describes process for adopting zoning regulations and map. The jurisdiction must zone enough area to allow for the permitting of all of the housing units it identiﬁed in the land use plan. The bill includes a list of zoning reforms for encouraging housing and requires each jurisdiction to adopt ﬁve or more of the reforms. All permitting is administrative, with a process to appeal to planning There is a written comment period if necessary to address new or signiﬁcantly increased impacts. (Sections 18-24)

After zoning is adopted, the jurisdiction adopts subdivision regulations with an administrative process for review and approval of plats and Very narrow criteria applied for lot creation. Another written comment period if necessary to address new or signiﬁcantly increased impacts. (Section 25-33)