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Sanders County residents filled the senior center in Plains last Thursday night to sit in on a meeting addressing potential growth plans for the town. An outdated growth policy prompted Plains Mayor Dan Rowan to reach out to Sanders County Community Development Corporation (SCCDC) Executive Director Ray Brown last year for help.

A long process of conversations between Brown and Montana Department of Commerce Outreach Specialist Gus Byrom, who attended Thursday’s meeting, led to collaboration with Robin Spear from WGM Group, a planning and design firm who caters to helping communities with different planning studies and growth policies. Spear presented the opportunity for those attending the meeting to give their input on what direction residents want the town to go as they head into the future and what they, as locals, value about their town.

“This is a preliminary planning study encouraging community members to get involved,” Spear said at the beginning of the meeting. “The future is coming, whether we are ready or not. How do you want to set up the town for future generations?”

The conducted study, Spear says, will act as a guiding document allowing residents to voice what they want to develop and protect. “This gives the town a foundation to build on,” she said. “Your town is only as strong as your community.”

While the discussion was outlined to focus on several talking points including infrastructure, natural resources and economic development; a simple question of “what makes Plains unique” quickly turned into a heated dispute as the topic of affordable housing took over the evening’s conversation.

While there were many strong voices in the room with viewpoints on both sides, the majority valued the “small town feel” and their privacy above all else. Of those in attendance, several people also believed that crime would rise if any kind of housing development were to take place in the future.

For those few who wanted to continue discussions on the planning study, the greater number of those that evening pressed on for an extended deliberation of no growth and no funding from state or federal government.

A voice in the room to establish some middle ground was that of Mayor Rowan’s. “There is nothing on the table pushing for government subsidized housing,” he said, trying to calm the group. “If you came in with that mindset, you need to let that go. This isn’t about trying to put big government here.”

While the mayor fielded several questions, he was directly asked if he would be against subsidized housing. “We, as a town, are not looking to bring subsidized housing into Plains, but people want to be able to afford a home here and afford to work here,” he said. “It’s an indisputable fact that locals can’t afford to live here.”

The topic of workforce housing was also brought to the table, as the hospital can’t recruit enough nurses due to the lack of housing. Rowan tried to calm the discussion once again, reiterating WGM wasn’t there to push affordable housing or government subsidized housing.

Although the conversation swayed slightly into illegal immigration, the discussion focused heavily on affordable housing for the remainder of the evening.

“This wasn’t meant to be a debate,” Brown said. “It was a forum meant to be an opportunity for the community to talk about what they love about their town, what they want to preserve and what they would like to see improved.”

While Brown did take the opportunity at the end of the meeting to converse with those who were disgruntled about the topic of affordable housing, he did say he also had the opportunity to explain and differentiate housing availability and affordable housing and what that means for Sanders County.

“The consensus I had from that group is that words matter,” he stated. “Growth policy is a trigger and affordable housing is a trigger, but growth policy doesn’t mean growth promotion.” Brown went on to explain that having a current growth policy in place, shows as a community, the residents are able to come together and form discussions about their town.

Although individuals came to the meeting with preconceived notions and a level of distrust, Brown says the meeting was merely an opportunity for the public to provide input for the town in which they live. “We're not going to prevent individuals or groups of individuals from expressing how they feel about the local, state or federal government, but we are going to continue to provide a forum for the community to be able to provide their feedback,” he said. “That’s not going to stop.”

Brown said while public sentiment and the objective of the meeting was not met, he did say by being able to provide individuals with more information and clarity on the process left him believing the evening was a success.

“Our presence as SCCDC is not to support or incentivize on bringing outside influence in,” Brown stated. “We’re here to support the people who are here and the things the people in the community want to see done. Having community connections and open conversations is a strong value. You have to have it.”

While the mayor answered many questions from concerned attendees at the meeting, his stance on reinforcing the meeting’s narrative still stands.

“This was a chance for the community to say how they want to manage growth,” Rowan said. “I heard them when they said they want to retain the small-town atmosphere and I heard many constructive and valid points, if we could have kept going in that direction it would have been more productive.”

Rowan restated his concerns for local residents as they face the current housing market. “We are not talking about low-income housing or affordable housing, that is not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about market conditions. The locals here are having a hard time keeping up with the dollars it takes to buy or rent. There’s nothing wrong with recognizing that as a community need.”

The second public meeting will be held August 20 and Rowan plans on attending. For Plains residents wanting to provide feedback and be part of the survey addressing future growth plans in Plains, visit http://www.surveymonkey.com/R/plainsmt.