LAND USE POLICY 

 NATIONAL - STATE AND LOCAL 



Passage of a much-needed national 

 land use policy by Congress appears to 

 be imminent. House consideration of 

 land use legislation is expected in 

 October. The Senate has already pass- 

 ed the Land Use Policy and Planning 

 Assistance Act of 1973 (S.268). 



The bill requires that within five 

 years of passage that states must 

 develop a land use planning program 

 to include inventories of land and 

 natural resources, data on growth 

 trends, a program to regulate certain 

 land sales and development projects, 

 a statement of land use policies and 

 objectives, methods to control use and 

 development of land in areas of criti- 

 cal environmental concern, methods to 

 control large-scale development of 

 more than local significance, coor- 

 dination with other planning efforts, 

 and public participation. 



Participation by local government 

 officials in developing, implementing 

 and revising a state land use program 

 is required. In addition, the state 

 planning agency must have an advisory 

 council of local elected officials. 

 There are thus excellent opportunities 

 for the Conservation Districts to be 

 directly involved in the determination 

 of Montana's land use program. 



In anticipation of the national 

 land use policy, the Montana Environ- 

 mental Quality Council has launched a 

 two-year state land use policy study. 

 One of the study objectives is to 

 submit comprehensive planning pro- 

 posals to the 1975 Montana legislature. 

 Governor Judge has recently appointed 

 an Interagency Land Use Advisory 

 Council to assist the EQC in determin- 

 ing the legal and institutional arrange- 

 ments for land use planning that are 

 appropriate for Montana. 



A crucial element of comprehensive 

 planning sorely lacking in Montana is a 

 statement of long-range goals concerning 

 land use, energy and growth. Goals are 

 essential to address the important 

 question, "What are we planning for?" 



Conservation District supervisors and 

 cooperators will have an opportunity 

 to express opinions as to the future 

 directions of our state during the 

 Governor's citizen meetings in 

 November. 



Comprehensive planning will in- 

 volve coordination and restructuring 

 of many planning-related laws already 

 in the Montana statutes. The more 

 important existing legislation in- 

 cludes the Floodway Management and 

 Regulation Act of 1971; the Utility 

 Siting Act of 1973; the Subdivision 

 and Platting Act of 1973; and a new- 

 ly enacted law expanding the jurisdic- 

 tion of the Department of Health and 

 Environmental Sciences over subdivisions. 

 In addition, HB 275 requires the 

 appointment of a conservation district 

 supervisor to each county planning 

 board to correlate CD planning with 

 county planning. 



The Montana Department of Natural 

 Resources and Conservation is completing 

 two projects that will be of assistance 

 to the districts in land use planning. 

 A land capability study for land use 

 planning in Montana will hopefully be 

 published and available for distribu- 

 tion during the District Area Meetings, 

 October 1-5. The Conservation Dis- 

 trict Long Range Program Guidelines 

 will also be available in draft form 

 for discussion at that time. 



RECP 



The "Agriculture and Consumer Pro- 

 tection Act of 1973" has been signed 

 into law by President Nixon. Among 

 its provisions are a "Rural Environ- 

 mental Conservation Program" (RECP) 

 which authorizes the Secretary of 

 Agriculture to enter into long term 

 contracts to carry out the purposes 

 of the Soil Conservation and Domestic 

 Allotment Act and the Water Bank Act. 

 These contracts will be according to 

 conservation plan developed in cooper- 

 ation with the Soil and Water Conser- 

 vation Districts. Appropriations for 

 this program are still pending. 



