Lewis and Clark County proposes zoning changes for Special District 43, residents worry about industrial growth

Nick Thennis said Lewis and Clark County’s proposed rewrite of Special Zoning District 43 left neighbors facing a familiar threat in a new form: industrial activity creeping closer to homes near the gravel pit. “It really is a mess,” Thennis said as residents packed the county hearing room in Helena to fight changes that could loosen protections in the district north of East Helena.

The county’s Community Development and Planning department is seeking a text amendment, not a map change, to Special Zoning District 43. The proposal would let non-conforming uses expand if they win a Conditional Use Permit and would remove the district’s Special Restrictions section along with related definitions. County planners say the goal is to bring the district into line with other zoning districts and with the county’s updated Growth Policy, which commissioners approved in July 2025 after a two-year process that included nine open houses and 15 stakeholder meetings.

But District 43 was created for a different reason. In 2008, after residents petitioned to stop mining and industrial activity on the land, Lewis and Clark County set up the special district around a Helena Sand & Gravel parcel. The company already had a Montana Department of Environmental Quality permit to mine 110 acres of its 421-acre tract, and the later zoning fight focused on the remaining 311 acres. In 2012, the Montana Supreme Court upheld the county’s restrictions and described the case as citizen-initiated zoning that favored residential uses and prohibited mining.

That history still shapes the argument over what the new language would do. Area resident Alex Dodd said the current rules explicitly deny mining and industrial expansion, while the proposed rewrite could make those bans only implicit and easier to challenge. Rep. Jill Cohenour, who lives just outside the district and represents most of it in House District 83, said the restrictions being removed were adopted for the health and safety of people living there. After the Planning and Zoning Commission vote, she said the county had “completely missed the mark.”

County staff say District 43 already contains a mix of residential, agricultural, commercial and industrial uses, including a mini-storage facility, a water treatment facility and a gravel pit. Nearby properties include homes, farms, commercial gravel sales, educational facilities and more mini-storage. The county also says the district spans three future land-use designations under the 2025 Growth Policy: Rural Residential and Agriculture, Community Mixed Use, and Commercial Corridor/Industrial.

At the April 16 hearing in Room 330 of the City-County Building, more than 30 residents attended, more than half spoke against the changes, and 16 additional letters of opposition were submitted before the meeting. No residents spoke or wrote in favor. County planners say industrial uses are not listed as permitted or conditional uses in the district, and that any expansion of a non-conforming use would still need a site-specific Conditional Use Permit review. For residents who fought to protect the area in 2008, that assurance has not erased the fear that the next round of industrial pressure will come closer to their front doors.