LIVINGSTON — The Park County Commission has preliminarily approved a zoning district limiting commercial development in the Suce Creek drainage.
In a unanimous vote July 15 that was met with a round of applause, county commissioners approved a resolution to create the Suce Creek Planning and Zoning District. The commission’s vote puts the Suce Creek drainage south of Livingston on a path toward restricting high-impact commercial enterprises as Park County residents grapple with development pressure wrought by the region’s recreational appeal and proximity to Yellowstone National Park.
The vote comes nine months after a local environmental nonprofit unearthed and made public a proposal by a Miami-based developer looking to pack more than 100 buildings and 400 parking spaces onto a 90-acre parcel in the Suce Creek drainage, an area with about a dozen residences, a herd of cattle and a trail leading into the Absoraka-Beartooth Wilderness. Local officials say it’s been months since they’ve heard from Flex Capital, a real estate firm that’s an unknown quantity in Montana, but conservation groups maintain that Park County’s rural and agricultural qualities remain vulnerable to other ill-fitting development proposals.
In a July 15 conversation with Montana Free Press, Maggie McGuane said she was heartened by Suce Creek residents’ consensus surrounding the zoning district, particularly given the wide range of views her neighbors hold about zoning, property rights and the appropriate role of government.
“I can’t stress enough what extremes — in every direction — we had along that road. The fact that everybody came so completely together after working in the weeds for months is nothing short of miraculous,” said McGuane, who spearheaded the citizen-initiated zoning effort. “Flex Capital’s [proposal] was the jumping off point that got us together, but it ended up being a really important conversation about the future of that neighborhood.”
McGuane said the drafting and signature-gathering process may be time-intensive and expensive — particularly after the Montana Legislature passed a law four years ago that requires citizen-initiated zoning proponents to cover the costs for drawing up the necessary documents — but it comes with secondary benefits.
“Flex Capital’s [proposal] was the jumping off point that got us together, but it ended up being a really important conversation about the future of that neighborhood.”
Suce Creek Resident Maggie McGuane
“What I wish I could tell everyone is that it’s daunting, but what you end up with is a community,” she said. “The process creates a community.”
Bryan Wells, who was recently elected to a four-year term on the county commission, praised Suce Creek zoning proponents for working together to find common ground at the commission’s July 15 meeting.
“I have a little bit of an issue with citizen-initiated zoning because it always bothers me that 60% can force 40% of their neighbors into something they want,” he said, referencing the signature minimums established in state law to bring a proposal forward. “But you went well beyond 60% to 85%. That is pretty amazing. That tells me that you really reached out to everyone, so kudos to you for that.”
In a phone call with Montana Free Press, Park County Planner Mike Inman said the zoning district has two remaining hurdles. The Park County Planning and Zoning Commission will review the 34-page document containing the proposed regulations on Aug. 12. That commission will then make a recommendation back to the Park County Commission, which will take a final vote on the matter.
The proposed regulations detail how land inside the district boundary could be used, as well as uses deemed out of alignment with the petitioners’ vision for Suce Creek’s future. Developments that are “consistent and compatible with existing agriculture and rural residential uses” would be protected, whereas enterprises that would result in “urban encroachment and commercial and industrial uses incompatible with the agricultural and rural residential character of the Suce Creek area” would be unwelcome.
THE ROLE OF RECENT PLANNING VOTES
If the county commission ultimately adopts the proposal, Suce Creek will join just a handful of areas in Park County subject to zoning rules. There are five existing citizen-initiated zoning districts in Park County, which stretches from Wilsall to Cooke City.
Even before the Flex Capital proposal surfaced, Park County residents have grappled with growth and development. In June of 2024, voters rejected a referendum to repeal the county’s existing growth plan, which would have forestalled county-wide zoning. To the chagrin of planning advocates, voters passed a sister initiative that requires Park County residents (outside the county’s incorporated communities of Livingston and Clyde Park) to approve any new growth plans or amendments to the existing one.
That pair of votes came two years after commissioners indefinitely postponed the process to create a county-wide agricultural and residential preservation zoning district amid pushback from residents ideologically opposed to zoning and from planning advocates who favor stronger, more detailed regulations.
Randy Carpenter, a longtime city planner who serves as Friends of Park County’s executive director, falls in the latter camp. In a July 24 conversation with MTFP, he said his organization wants the county commission to pursue zoning that comes “with a map.”
Carpenter argues that the proposed county-wide zoning would have allowed just about any commercial or industrial use so long as project developers made an effort to mitigate potential conflicts. In his view, ecologically sensitive areas and regions with particular public safety concerns merit stronger protections.
“I understand why they [considered the agricultural and residential preservation zoning district] and I think it would be better than nothing,” he said. “That doesn’t mean you can’t do it a different way.”
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Carpenter cheered the commission’s preliminary adoption of the Suce Creek zoning district, but also described it as a politically “easy” vote. County-wide zoning should still be on the table, he said.
“In this case, with Suce Creek, the [resort development] looks like it’s not going to happen given that the zoning district would not allow it. But that doesn’t mean the rest of the county [is safe],” he said. “If they did their research and said Park County is a good place for this for all of the reasons — the beauty, and the mountains, and the Yellowstone River, and the park, and that stupid TV show [Yellowstone] — I would think there would be other potential resort [investors] looking at Park County. Why wouldn’t they?”
Erica Lighthiser, Park County Environmental Council’s co-director, described zoning as a “hot topic” that generates intense public interest — in cycles. In a July 24 conversation with MTFP, Lighthiser said she’d like to see continued momentum for zoning conversations.
“We need local guardrails,” she said. “We need more local processes for us to have a say as to when commercial, residential and industrial development is happening.”
Lighthiser added that Park County residents in other drainages, such as Mill Creek and Rock Creek, have expressed interest in citizen-initiated zoning, but could be dissuaded by the cost and time required.
“It was a ton of work for Maggie and the neighbors to put this together. To expect that that’s how we can move forward with land-use planning in Park County is a big ask,” she said. “These folks had a threat in their neighborhood, something that really galvanized them to come together to protect these shared values. But that’s not going to be the case in every neighborhood, nor will they necessarily have the resources to hire an attorney to draft the document.”
She said she’d like to see the county facilitate locally led planning “so that if citizens want to initiate a district like this, or a neighborhood plan, or some more localized version of zoning, there’s a better process.”
Inman, who has been working in the county’s planning department for nearly 20 years, said he, too, is curious how Park County commissioners will handle future zoning conversations.
“They haven’t really been asked the question as to whether or not they support any kind of county-[led] effort,” he said. “We have a whole new administration, so we’re all kind of waiting to see what they want to do as far as growth goes.”
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