Public raises water and wildlife concerns as Lincoln County continues Schreiber Meadows preliminary plats

The Lincoln County Board of Commissioners on June 11 continued consideration of the Schreiber Meadows North and South preliminary plats after public commenters and commissioners flagged outstanding questions about water rights, wildlife buffers and enforcement.

The commissioners heard a detailed staff presentation of 36 conditions of approval for Schreiber Meadows North, including road and access requirements (approvals by MDOT and U.S. Forest Service), DEQ approval for water, wastewater and stormwater, a 30,000-gallon cistern and maintenance plan for fire protection, FEMA flood-elevation documentation, geotechnical analysis for steep lots and a 150-foot no-disturbance vegetated buffer plus a 50-foot building setback along Schreiber Creek. Staff also said face-of-plat labeling and covenant language would be used to notify future buyers about no-build areas.

The matter drew multiple public commenters. "All of that mitigation apparently is moot, which was demonstrated today," said Maggie Craig, a member of the public, who argued that mitigation measures mostly benefit future residents and do not meaningfully protect wildlife or downstream water users. Craig also questioned whether the developer’s engineering conclusions about groundwater impacts were disputed by MDT and asked whether the proposed 27 wells would be treated as combined appropriations under DNRC guidance.

The county planner and applicant representatives responded that the project consists of two pre-existing tracts of record and that each subdivision would have an exempt 10 acre-feet allotment (10 acre-feet for North and 10 acre-feet for South). "So the 15 wells in the South can't exceed 10 acre-feet," staff said, describing DEQ’s planning metrics and noting that the developer must demonstrate how the project will remain under those limits and provide monitoring and conditions to limit lawn and garden use.

Developer Andy Evanston, Evanston Engineering, said the developer is not proposing surface water rights and that the project will need to meet state non-degradation rules and obtain DEQ approvals before final plat. He said some pre-approval mitigation and infrastructure work (roads, conduit) had already been completed because the two parent parcels allow a dwelling each.

Commissioners probed enforcement: who will police buffers, signage and covenants, and whether separate tracts or HOA ownership would make protections more enforceable. Staff said those enforcement questions are difficult in practice but that plat notes, signage and covenant language are intended to notify buyers and create record-level restrictions that can support enforcement or later covenants.

After discussion, the board voted to continue Schreiber Meadows North and South to next week so staff and the applicant can refine condition language on buffers, perennial/intermittent stream designations and related clarifications. The commission’s action preserves the preliminary-plat timeline but requires the developer to address the outstanding technical and enforcement questions before a final-plat decision.

Next steps: the developer and county staff will return with revised condition language and clarifications on water-rights accounting, stream designation and enforcement mechanisms at the next meeting.