October 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 23

review and revise your subdivision
regulations
After adoption of the MPP, I began working
on amending the city's subdivision regulations in order to improve the quantity and
quality of parkland dedication. Two fundamental changes could have universal application for U.S. cities and counties.
Require an appraisal for cash-inlieu determination. Montana state law
allows developers to offer to pay cash instead of dedicating land (the governing
body makes the fi nal decision; MCA 763-621). For example, if the 11 percent land
dedication for a hypothetical subdivision
equals .60 acres, the developer may pay
the local government the value of that .60
acres instead of dedicating it in fee title.
Cash-in-lieu of parkland dedication is often preferred when the 11 percent dedication equals less than one acre because
small pocket parks generally are more
expensive to maintain on a per-acre basis than larger parks, and their size limits
their utility for recreation.
The state statute does not set forth a
required method for determining " fair
market value of the un-subdivided, unimproved land " for cash-in-lieu purposes.
For many years, cash-in-lieu for both City
of Missoula and Missoula County subdivisions was determined by the Montana
Department of Revenue (DOR). When a
developer gave the Office of Planning
and Grants (OPG) notice that they were
ready to record their final plat, OPG
would submit a request to the DOR to
give an estimate of value. Unfortunately,
the DOR would base that value on how the
land was currently classified for tax purposes, which was often agriculture land.
So, for example, while developers were
paying roughly $80,000 to $100,000 per
acre for land that would be annexed into
the city and rezoned for four to six dwelling units per acre, the DOR would come
up with a value of about $10-20,000 per
acre. Thus, the city was often receiving
less than one-quarter of the fair market
value to base the cash-in-lieu determination upon. Not only was this unfair to

example of a " park " dedicated in the
1970s that would no longer qualify
under new parkland dedication
standards.

citizens; it was contrary to state law that
requires " fair market value. "
In order to change this situation, I began researching how other cities in Montana and other states determined land
value for cash-in-lieu purposes. Some
had the same procedure as Missoula,
but others had adopted a requirement in
their subdivision regulations that developers must submit a current land appraisal. Based upon those examples and my
own experience in working with appraisers, I drafted a proposed regulation and
took it through the long public process of
adoption. In Missoula, we have well-organized Realtors and builders groups, and
they argued that requiring an appraisal
would just add to the cost of homes. However, the Council wisely realized that the
extra $1,000 to $3,000 cost of the appraisal would represent a very small fraction
of the overall costs that determine the
price of the homes in the subdivision (as
only one appraisal is needed for the land
being subdivided, not each house). Ultimately, both the County and the City adopted the following:
Cash donation in-lieu of land dedication shall be equal to the fair market
value of the amount of land that would
have been statutorily required to be
dedicated. For the purpose of these
regulations, the fair market value is the
value of the unsubdivided, unimproved
land based upon the zoning designation that will apply to the proposed
subdivision (i.e., the existing zoning, if

the subdivision application is not accompanied by a rezoning request or
the new proposed zoning if the subdivision application is accompanied by a
rezoning request). Fair market value
must be determined by a Montana
State certified general real estate appraiser (as provided under MCA
37-54-201 et seq) hired and paid for by
the subdivider. For purposes of this
Regulation, appraisals are valid if prepared within six (6) months of the date
of the submittal of an application to the
Office of Planning and Grants for final
plat approval.

This regulation went into effect in
2005 and served us well during the
boom years of 2006-2008. The city fi nally received cash-in-lieu equivalent to the
fair market value of the land dedication,
which has been put to good use improving parks and trails near the subdivided
lands.
Standards for Parkland dedication-During much of the past 30 years,
the city's subdivision regulations included
basic design criteria for parkland dedication, but the criteria were too vague and
allowed the dedication of less than ideal
land for parks. For example, the city and
county accepted steep hillsides, ravines,
monument entries, narrow strips behind
houses, and many pocket parks less than
one acre in size. These " non-conforming "
parklands are more expensive and often
more difficult to maintain on a per-acre basis than conforming parks and they usually
do not provide many parkland benefits for
the residents of the new subdivision.
The first step to providing the support
to amend the regulations was the research
for the Master Parks Plan. We looked at national standards and peer cities throughout
the Rocky Mountain region to develop a
list of criteria for neighborhood parks that
included standards for location, grade,
size, access, and design/shape. Those
criteria included (1) central location in the
subdivision, (2) 5 to 12 acres, (3) at least
half of the park bounded by public streets,
and (4) relatively flat grade.

w w w . N R P A . O R G O C T O B E R 2 0 1 1 Parks

& Recreation

October 2011 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of October 2011 - Parks & Recreation