California couple's half-built home stirs dispute within national park |
FILE: Cascades appear along McDonald Creek in Glacier National Park.
A California couple's half-finished house near a creek inside Montana’s Glacier National Park has become the centerpiece of a domain dispute.
On Wednesday, a federal judge in Missoula is set to hear oral arguments on whether the region’s conservation district has jurisdiction over the home. The Flathead Conservation District previously ordered the couple, John and Stacy Ambler of San Diego, to tear down the house. The district claimed the couple violated state law because they did not obtain necessary building permits.
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In 2019, the Amblers bought a 2,300-square-foot piece of private land within the national park — classified as an “inholding” — in Apgar Village. They began constructing a house a couple of years later, installing a “concrete retaining wall into the streambank as well as placed rock footers into the bank for decks,” according to Hungry Horse News.
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Concerned residents filed complaints with the Flathead Conservation District, the governing body that oversees the region’s conservation management, which includes enforcing the Montana Natural Streambed and Land Preservation Act. After receiving the complaints, the district said the Amblers did not obtain permits to build the home, which violated the act. In 2023, the district instructed the Amblers to remove the partially constructed house.
In response, the Amblers filed a lawsuit against the Flathead Conservation District, “asserting that federal and Montana law both say that the FCD does not have jurisdiction over the Property,” according to court documents.
The Amblers said the Flathead County planning office permitted them, in writing, to build the home “without restriction” and that the National Park Service also permitted them to connect to the sewer and water system in Apgar Village, according to Hungry Horse News.
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As the court decides the fate of the Glacier Park home, it sits empty and unfinished along McDonald Creek.
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