An apology to county residents around Whitefish

Politics in the Flathead Valley has definitely changed in recent years, but I must say that I have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the process.

As mayor of Columbia Falls for five years before running for county commissioner, I realized the importa nce of how the gateway to our communities look and that this is our last chance to get it right.

I worked with the city right after taking office to have extraterritorial jurisdiction for all the right reasons and dealt with much criticism for the effort. I have since come to regret my decision — I have not served my constituents well by supporting extraterritorial jurisdiction.

This decision is not in the county residents' best interest, and it has come to light as the details of the Whitefish Growth Policy and this unbelievable critical area ordinance has been unveiled.

I will say that I respect the time and work the Whitefish City Council and the planning board has gone through to try and understand what has been presented to the community of Whitefish, but the growth policy document is fatally flawed, and this critical area ordinance document is so oppressive that the city has exempted themselves from complying with it.

To arbitrarily designate U.S. Highway 93 and east on Highway 40 rural or rural residential is not acceptable at any level. Many people have testified that the noise from the highway is not conducive to residential development and it should be designated commercial.

I understand the concern that there may be big, metal, ugly buildings as you travel the highway to enter the city, but I have a solution. I ask you to think of it from the perspective of the families who own property along the highway.

Take for example the Morris family. The property has been owned by the family for generations, and all of a sudden you have taken away their ability to do what their family planning has been for their property for years. This is just one of many families affected.

In the growth policy, page four in the implementation chapter, under "intergovernmental coordination," it talks about joint long-range planning and development review. The county and cities have a long range planning task force that I put together four years ago, and they have been active in the Flathead County Growth Policy and has an active affordable housing subcommittee and a land-use committee that will be giving their report this week.

One solution to the arbitrary designation of the highway corridor to residential is to designate it what it is — commercial. I would commit to having the Long Range Planning Task Force put together architectural-design guidelines so developers would know at the beginning of the process what the community would like to see at the gateway to their community.

Why the city would want to eliminate the opportunity for families who have owned their property for generations is difficult to understand or accept. The county residents within the Whitefish jurisdiction should at least have the opportunity to vote on the regulations being imposed on them.

I offered to provide a list of county residents to former city planning director Bob Horne, but like anyone who opposes the "no-growth" agenda, I was dismissed as irrelevant.

Please stop this slippery slide and do the right thing for your neighbors. Insist to your city council that the highway corridors be designated commercial with architectural guidelines in place. Let's do the right thing and work together in a fair manner.

For brevity sake, the only thing I have to say about the critical area ordinance is that, though perhaps well intentioned and in some areas sensible, the science is flawed, and that can and will be proven.

More importantly, it is another "no-growth" agenda item. You are eliminating the opportunity for good folks who own land in the Whitefish area to build a home after investing and dreaming of building their home.

It is insulting to have certain folks portray anyone who questions the critical area ordinance as not caring about stormwater runoff and water quality. I would go as far as saying there is probably not one person who lives in our community who does not care deeply about water issues.

To bring in three men from another state to direct a council-appointed board to decide what we can and cannot do with lands that have a portion with slopes (putting it simple) is not how we should be working together.

Again, the effort should be made to allow those affected to vote on the new set of regulations since they can't vote on who is making these decisions for them.

As I stated in my testimony before the planning board last week, may calm minds prevail, and may the city council adequately represent today those county residents who may eventually be a part of the city through annexation tomorrow.

Gary D. Hall is a Flathead County Commissioner.