What Code Compliance Handles
Flathead County Planning and Zoning enforces county regulations that affect how property is used and maintained. Use this page to report a suspected violation, learn how complaints are handled, and find the forms and ordinances that apply.
Our office enforces the county's:
- Community decay ordinance
- Zoning regulations
- Lakeshore regulations
- Floodplain regulations
- Buildings for lease or rent regulations
- Subdivision regulations
The community decay ordinance applies to all of Flathead County outside the city limits of Kalispell, Columbia Falls, and Whitefish. If the property is inside one of those cities, contact that city directly.
How to Report a Violation
If you are not sure whether a violation has occurred, contact our code compliance officer to discuss it before you file.
To report a suspected violation of a regulation or ordinance administered by the Planning and Zoning Office, complete and sign a violation complaint form and submit it to our office. Once we receive your complaint, our code compliance officer will investigate to determine whether a violation has occurred.
Report a Violation Online
Submit a complaint online and view alleged violations already reported to our office.
Violation Complaint Form
Print, complete, and sign the form, then return it to the Planning and Zoning Office.
When a Signed Complaint Form Is Required
Our office does complaint-based enforcement, so a signed complaint form is typically required to open an investigation.
If the suspected violation has the potential to impact water quality and flooding, a signed complaint form may not be required to investigate.
What Happens After You File
Our office handles complaints in the order they are received.
- Our code compliance officer inspects the property to determine whether a violation is occurring, and will attempt to make contact during the site visit.
- If a violation is occurring, the property owner receives a letter describing the violation and has 30 days to come into compliance.
- The owner may submit a plan of abatement stating the type of abatement to be undertaken, the date it will begin, and the date of completion.
- Our code compliance officer inspects the property again and closes the file.
Instead of removing the materials, an owner may shield them from public view. Ordinance No. 6 sets standards for fencing, shrubs, trees, and berms used as shielding.
If a violation is not corrected, the county may abate the condition and assess the cost to the property owner, and an unpaid assessment becomes a lien on the property. An owner may appeal an abatement order to the Board of County Commissioners within 14 days of the date the order is issued. See Ordinance No. 6 for the full procedure, and contact our office with questions about a specific notice.
What Is Community Decay
Community decay is a public nuisance created when rubble, debris, junk, or refuse is allowed to accumulate on a property. Normal farming, ranching, and other agricultural operations are not community decay. The ordinance defines it this way:
Community decay is a public nuisance created by allowing rubble, debris, junk or refuse to accumulate resulting in conditions that are injurious to health, indecent, offensive to the senses, or obstruct the free use of property so as to interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property; provided, however, that "community decay" may not be construed or defined to apply to normal farming, ranching, or other agricultural operations or to a farm, ranch, or another agricultural facility, and any appurtenances thereof, during the course of its normal operation.
Community decay must be "in public view" from a public road. Ordinance No. 6 defines public view as any area visible from a point up to six feet above the surface of the center of any public roadway.
Junk Vehicles
Accumulations of junk vehicles and vehicle parts in public view are community decay under Ordinance No. 6, so you can report them using the complaint process above. Junk vehicles are also regulated under Montana's Motor Vehicle Recycling and Disposal Act, a state program.
Under state law, a junk vehicle is a discarded, ruined, wrecked, or dismantled motor vehicle, including component parts, that is not lawfully and validly licensed and remains inoperable. A vehicle must meet all three parts of that definition.
- All junk vehicles must be shielded from public view, regardless of how many are on the property.
- Component parts such as engines, transmissions, and fenders must also be shielded.
- Tarps and plastic sheeting are not acceptable shielding.
- Repairing a vehicle so it runs, or licensing it, removes it from the junk vehicle classification.
- Four or more junk vehicles at one location, or buying and selling secondhand motor vehicle parts, requires a state motor vehicle wrecking facility license.
If a vehicle has been abandoned on your property, contact your local law enforcement agency for help contacting the owner or getting authorization to remove it.
For questions about disposal, shielding standards, or licensing, contact the Montana Department of Environmental Quality Junk Vehicle Program. You can also read the Junk Vehicle Brochure (PDF).
All Forms and Documents
Report a Violation
Ordinances and Reference
Location
Suite 220
Kalispell, MT 59901
40 11th Street West
Suite 220
Kalispell, MT 59901
HOURS
- 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. M-F
- 9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. M-F
If your inquire is expected to take more than 15 minutes, please complete out General Consultation form. A planner will reach out to you to schedule a meeting at a mutually convenient time. - Closed on Federal Holidays