Senate panel hears cleanup bill for Montana Land Use Planning Act; sponsor calls it clarification, cities and counties seek fixes

Sen. Forrest Mandeville, sponsor of Senate Bill 121, told the Senate Local Government Committee on Wednesday that the bill is a technical cleanup to the recently enacted Montana Land Use Planning Act. "This is a cleanup bill," Mandeville said, adding the measure adds a definition for "development application," clarifies public notice requirements, and sets out how extraterritorial zoning operates between cities and counties.

Mandeville said the bill mainly clarifies existing practice: under the draft language, if a city has zoning outside its limits and a county asserts authority over the same area, the county's regulation would prevail. "So if the city has zoning outside of its jurisdiction and the county says, no, we're gonna zone it, then the city zoning goes away," Mandeville said.

The changes also cross‑reference municipal facility review and the subdivision rules so cities that rely on local water, sewer or stormwater capacity reviews need…