On July 26, the Gallatin County Commission passed
the Big Sky Meadow Trails, Recreation and Parks Special
District. This is a milestone in the process to create
a multi-jurisdictional park, trail and recreation district
in Big Sky.
The collaborative effort started with the intention of
allowing Big Sky to maintain control of its
parks and trails through a government district.
In order to create a district in which both
counties of Big Sky could work together as
one, two separate districts need to be passed,
along with an interlocal agreement to define
how the two districts can work together.
With the passage of the Gallatin County district,
along with their portion of the interlocal
agreement, this process is half complete.
The Madison County Commission is set to
have a hearing in Big Sky on Sept. to make a
decision on the Resolution of Intent to create
the Big Sky Mountain Trails, Recreation and
Parks Special District, which, if passed, will
begin a 30 day comment period. This Resolution
of Intent will expand a current 3-square
mile Big Sky Park District (created in 1988,
but never activated), and strip it of its 10 mill
taxing authority to be consistent with the
non-taxing Meadow District. The district
boundary will include all trails and property
that are primarily accessible via Big Sky rather
than Ennis. If the Commission does not
receive significant opposition, they will pass
the final resolution and sign the interlocal
agreement with Gallatin County.
After each signing the interlocal agreement,
the two counties will advertise for
positions on the multijurisdictional board. Two
board members must be residents or property
owners in Gallatin County within the district,
two must be residents or property owners in
Madison County within the district, with the
fifth board member owning property or residing
in either county. According to state law, the board
members must also be residents of the county
from which they are representing.
The Madison County hearing is Sept. at the
Huntley Lodge at 10 a.m.
If you have questions
please contact Katie Morrison at (406) 993-2112
or bscc@bsccmt.org
