Lewis and Clark County weighs zoning changes for Canyon Ferry corridor

Residents along Canyon Ferry Road, Valley Drive and Lake Helena Drive could see the sharpest effects if Lewis and Clark County loosens the rules in Special Zoning District No. 43. The corridor already mixes single-family homes, agricultural land and heavier uses such as a gravel pit, a water treatment facility, mini-storage and commercial gravel sales, and county staff warned that any change in the district’s language could affect traffic, noise, land values and where industrial activity is allowed to grow.

At issue is whether the zoning rules still match a stretch of the county that sits on the east side of Helena and reaches toward East Helena. The draft regulations say the district was meant to protect single-family dwellings and agricultural land uses while preserving a rural-residential atmosphere and property values. Yet the same draft also lists special restrictions on industrial uses, hazardous waste disposal, landfills, mining activities, salvage and junk yards, truck storage, large-scale retail, large-scale commercial uses and hazardous substance disposal and storage, reflecting how many incompatible uses already sit near one another.

County planners said the proposal would update the district in two major ways. First, it would change the Non-conforming Uses section to allow expansion of non-conforming uses if a conditional use permit is issued. Second, it would remove the Special Restrictions section and its related definitions. That combination has raised concern among residents who fear the update could make it easier for more industrial expansion to move into a corridor where homes and farms still sit beside commercial and industrial sites.

Lewis and Clark County staff tied the rewrite to the 2025 Growth Policy, which places land inside Special Zoning District No. 43 in three future land-use categories: Rural Residential and Agriculture, Community Mixed Use, and Commercial Corridor/Industrial. Staff said that spread helps explain why the district is hard to regulate with one fixed approach and why the county is pushing to modernize citizen-initiated zoning under Growth Policy Policy 9.2.

The Planning and Zoning Commission held its hearing on the text amendments April 16 in Room 330 of the City-County Building in Helena, and the Board of County Commissioners was scheduled to take the next step at 9 a.m. Tuesday, April 28, in the same room. The commission itself includes the three county commissioners, the county surveyor, two citizen members from citizen-initiated special zoning districts and a county official appointed by the commission, a structure that underscores why this zoning fight has become as much about local accountability as land use.