Back in February, a California couple learned if they were allowed to keep the home that they illegally built at Glacier National Park. A federal judge ruled on the case and sided with the couple.
The judge found that the couple is allowed to keep their property at Glacier National Park after orders to destroy it. John and Stacy Ambler built a 2,300-foot house near McDonald Creek in the park.
According to SFGate, federal judge Kathleen DeSoto ruled in the couple's favor. She asserted Flathead Conservation District had no jurisdiction over the property and couldn't order the couple to destroy the house. The legal battle isn't over though. In a major new development, the FCD and Friends of Montana Streams and Rivers appealed the decision.
"Flathead Conservation District has a statutory duty to protect the natural resources within our district," Samantha Tappenbeck, a district resource conservationist, told SFGate. "So, the Flathead Conservation District Board of Supervisors decided to appeal the decision in service to the constituents of our district. And because the board felt that there were appealable issues."
Glacier National Park Home
The organization had ordered for the couple to destroy the Glacier National Park home, arguing that the couple didn't get proper permits. However, the couple claimed that the Flathead County's Planning Office gave them permission to settle the land without restriction.
"The only issue in this case is federal versus state jurisdiction over the Amblers' property," Trent Baker, the pair's attorney, wrote about the case.
It's something that he previously argued.
"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."
Meanwhile, the district has opposed the home at Glacier.
"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."
