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Residents and Town Pump representatives clash over Frenchtown zoning, with debate focused on groundwater, traffic and community character
Summary
At a May 12 Missoula County Planning and Zoning Commission hearing, two Part I zoning petitions affecting the Frenchtown interchange drew hours of testimony from Town Pump representatives, traffic and hydrogeologic consultants, school leaders and residents; key issues included historical contamination and cleanup, groundwater testing results, traffic mitigation, tax impacts and whether zoning should block a proposed truck stop. A follow‑up hearing is scheduled May 28.
On May 12 the Missoula County Planning and Zoning Commission heard two Part I zoning petitions for land around the Frenchtown interchange that would change allowable uses on roughly 400 acres. Staff presented the petitions and recommended approval of one petition and denial of the other; commissioners then heard extended public testimony from residents, school officials and representatives of Town Pump and its consultants on environmental, traffic and community impacts.
Town Pump representatives framed the issue as managed development with regulatory safeguards. Dan Sampson, construction development manager for Town Pump, described two historical releases at a Whitefish site and said the largest release occurred in 1989 before Town Pump purchased the property. He detailed remediation steps undertaken since purchase — “removal of the contaminated soils, installation of air sparging and soil vapor extraction systems, hydrogen peroxide injection, and continued installation of monitoring wells” — and invited the record’s review of a Flathead Beacon article documenting cleanup work.
Sampson…
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