The legal battle continues for a California couple trying to keep the home they allegedly illegally built in Glacier National Park continues. The couple built the three story house in the national park in 2022.
A federal judge is hearing the case on whether they can keep the house in Glacier National Park or not. A legal loophole may help them in their fight to keep the property. Flathead Conservation District ordered John and Stacy Ambler in 2024 to demolish the unfished home. They built the home on 2,200 squarefeet, which were grandfathered in when Glacier National Park was created in 1910.
The district said that the couple failed to apply for a permit to change the creek to build the home. In response, the couple sued to keep their Glacier Park home. Attorney Trent Baker argued only the federal government, not the state, could regulate the couple.
"Jurisdiction over the Ambler Property within Glacier National Park was ceded to the federal government," Baker argued. "The United States decides which state and county laws or regulations to apply there."
Glacier National Park Legal Loophole
Meanwhile, the district presented their side of the story.
"It's also known as the 310 law because of the number of the Senate bill that it was carried, back in 1975 it was Senate Bill 310," Samantha Tappenbeck, resource conservationist with Flathead Conservation District, told Cowboy State Daily. "But what that law says is that any private individual or entity planning to do a project that would impact the bed or banks of a perennial flowing stream needs to get a permit from their local conservation district."
There was a house once on the property in 1964, but a flood wiped it away that year. The California couple would later build on the same property. However, there are no floodplain designations on the property. FEMA never mapped the area. This may explain why the couple thought they could build without a permit.
However, the district disagrees.
"Glacier National Park did not 'allow' the construction on this private property," according to a court filing by the Flathead Conservation District. "Glacier National Park has no regulations related to construction on private property. There are rigorous rules related to construction within Glacier National Park (and all federal lands), none of which were complied with by the plaintiffs... The plaintiffs obtained no valid permit, contract or agreement with the United States."
It remains seen what will happen court.
