A 90-bed prerelease center is on track to open in Evergreen following the settlement of a lawsuit regarding the denial of the center last year.  

The Flathead County Board of Adjustment on Tuesday voted unanimously to approve an agreement that in effect approves the conditional use permit required to turn the Greenwood Village Inn & Suites hotel into the center. Officials with the state Department of Corrections verbally signed off on the agreement following the vote.   

After more than an hour of discussion, the board seemed to agree that approving the settlement was the only suitable option.  

Chair Cal Dyck said upon reflecting on the previous denial and hearing from attorneys regarding the lawsuit it became clear that the board’s reasons for denial were outside of its scope.  

“The one thing we can do for this community is to take the settlement to place conditions on this,” he said. “If we don’t that, it just kicks the can down the road for a couple of months and then all of a sudden, we’ve stripped it of all the conditions off the property.”  

The state filed a lawsuit against the county in Flathead County District Court following the denial last year for the permit to turn the hotel on East Oregon Street into the facility, which is designed to assist offenders with their transition from a secure facility back into the community.  

At the start of the meeting, Susan Swimley, the land-use attorney representing the board through the county’s insurance, advised the board to take the settlement offer.  

“If you agree to the settlement that allows for the conditional use permit and conditions on the property, or you can risk a judge making that decision for you and approving this with no conditions placed on it,” she said. “You have to decide is it better to settle and eliminate the risk or roll the dice and go to court.” 

Last year the Board of Adjustment rejected the center following board discussions claiming that law enforcement services are inadequate to serve the center, that the center would have a negative impact on the neighborhood and that the site could not accommodate the associated traffic.   

Several board members bemoaned a lack of information provided to the board in its initial decision-making process. Board member Jim Dyon said he felt backed into a corner regarding the settlement.  

“It seems like this has been pushed on us,” Dyon said. “We’re doing the best we can. Maybe we need a lawyer here at every meeting.”  

While Swimley said she could appreciate the pressure the board was under from neighbors who spoke in opposition to the location of the center, that was a decision already made when the Flathead County Commissioners voted to support the center the day prior to the board’s original decision. 

“You didn’t get to decide if this was an appropriate location, the commissioners decided that for you,” she said. “Your job is to look at this as a community facility and say does it meet the zoning regulations. And if it has an impact as a community facility then you see if you can form conditions that would mitigate those impacts.”  

The board ultimately agreed to an update of the original findings saying the 3-acre site is suitable for the center, while also placing conditions that traffic associated with the center would use the northwest road that runs along the edge of the neighborhood and that the center would provide no less than 45 parking spaces.  

In addition, the board agreed to an offer by the Department of Corrections to present the county commissioners with a memorandum of understanding that requires the department to provide a minimum of 10 calendar days notification to the county prior to the placement of an offender at the prerelease center. 

There are 10 prerelease centers in the state. However, there are none serving Northwest Montana, and the Department of Corrections says the area needs a facility based on the region’s population and number of offenders from the Flathead area in centers around the state.     

The Montana Legislature previously set aside $7.1 million in funding for a prerelease center in Kalispell.   

Deputy Editor Heidi Desch may be reached at 758-4421 or [email protected].