Commissioners approve Lockwood rezoning to make long-standing truck service conforming

Yellowstone County commissioners voted Aug. 8 to approve county zone change 717, a rezoning in the Lockwood area to make existing truck service and truck-wash uses conforming and to adjust zoning to match a recent boundary-line relocation.

Planning staff explained that much of the subject property was zoned Corridor Mixed Use 1 after a 2020 recode, which left some long-standing commercial operations nonconforming. Staff and the applicant said the rezoning would allow the current truck stop and service uses to be rebuilt, insured and financed if necessary. The affected land totals about 9.81 acres in the red-lined parcel shown to the board.

Applicant agent John Halverson said the Johnson Lane interchange expansion will increase traffic and that the owner needed the rezoning to avoid severe limitations on insurance and rebuilding. Property owner Bob Dunker said he has no plans to change the businesses on the site and described the request as bringing existing buildings into conformance: “I have no intentions of putting a casino or a bar…It’s to stay the way it is now.”

Neighbors testified in opposition, citing the removal of a buffer that would bring commercial uses roughly 60 feet closer to some yards, concerns about noise and fumes from trucks and the potential for future heavy-commercial development to reduce home values. Planning staff noted Heavy Commercial zoning would require a B3 buffer yard (a six-foot obscuring fence plus a planting strip) when new development occurs.

After hearing for and against, a commissioner moved based on planning staff recommendations and the board approved zone change 717.

The board’s approval makes the existing truck-service and truck-wash uses conforming with county code and subjects any future redevelopment to modern buffer and landscaping requirements.