Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Lakeshore Permits topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Attorney says lakeshore work on Whitefish Lake was done without proper public review; commissioners approve amendment
Summary
An attorney representing Citizens for a Better Flathead told commissioners that substantial, after-the-fact work on a Whitefish Lake shoreline was "utterly and totally denuded," and urged referral to the planning board; commissioners nonetheless approved a retrospective lakeshore permit amendment for the Pacquillette property and several other lakeshore permits during the meeting.
Don Murray, an attorney representing Citizens for a Better Flathead, told the Flathead County Board of Commissioners that recent work on a Whitefish Lake frontage had proceeded without adequate public review and had significant environmental impacts. "The lakeshore on the Pacquillette property was utterly and totally denuded," Murray said, adding that trees and vegetation were removed, non-native gravel was placed and the shoreline had been altered without a permitting process that allowed public input.
Murray urged the board to deny the pending after-the-fact permit and to refer the matter to the county planning board for a comprehensive review. He cited the Montana Lakeshore Protection Act and the countyadopted regulations, saying the law requires planning-board consideration when proposed activity will have "more than minimal or insignificant" impacts on a lake.
Commissioners discussed several lakeshore items on the agenda. Planning staff presented an amendment request from Charles and Kelly Pacquillette (FLP-23-76) submitted to remedy a standing violation: material for stairs had been changed to a concrete mixture without prior approval. The board voted to approve the Pacquillette amendment by voice vote.
In the same session the commissioners approved a series of other lakeshore actions: a new dock permit for Eric Saline (60 feet long, pile-supported with a boat lift; FLP-23-22), a permit for the Nielsen Family LLC to replace two nonconforming docks within the lakeshore protection zone (FLP-25-95), a permit to excavate washed-in gravel for the Gary R. Bridal Trust (FLP-25-106), and a variance for MD Jensen Customs (FLV-25-07) to expand an existing flow-through dock from 730 to 1,076 square feet due to shallow slip depths.
Planning staff repeatedly told the board that proposed work would occur from barges with no equipment contacting the lakebed and that the projects were being evaluated under the countyadopted findings. Staff also read findings that the Pacquillette amendment would not require new shoreline grading beyond the existing structures but acknowledged the amendment was retrospective and intended to address a violation.
The board did not formally refer the Pacquillette matter to the planning board during the meeting. Commissioners approved the listed permits and amendments by voice vote and recorded no opposing votes. The Pacquillette amendment approval came after public comment expressing concerns about the absence of an earlier public permitting process.
The county planning staff indicated that future compliance and permitting requirements remain the mechanism available to address site-specific remediation and that the Pacquillette amendment was framed as a remedial step to resolve the standing violation.
What happens next: the approved permits and amendments become part of the county record; the item raised in public comment—whether the work should have been considered initially by the planning board under the Lakeshore Protection Act—remains a matter of public scrutiny.
