Citizens lose in 'doughnut' debate debacle
After attending the July 16 public hearing where the Flathead County Planning Board exercised its brand new jurisdictional rights to take over for the Whitefish City-County Planning Board for determining land-use planning and zoning in the two-mile doughnut area surrounding the city, pending resolution by the Montana State Supreme Court, I made the following observations:
There is much more to this controversy than meets the eye. It is not only a lesson in the sociology of people governing themselves, but it's also a lesson in the underlying psychology of people's behavior. And it's complicated.
What spearheaded this controversy in the first place was actually the dispute between the average citizens of Whitefish city-county and the developers, builders, contractors, surveyors and Realtors engaged in a war involving defeating the Whitefish Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO), which attempts to control building on steep slopes around Whitefish Lake, and provides for vegetation absorbing buffers and setbacks for building sites near all lakes and streams.
These business interests have employed high-priced legal help in their battle against ordinary people, who can't afford attorneys, in order to be able to build on steep slopes without buffers and setbacks, which results in nitrate and phosphate nutrients polluting Whitefish Lake during stormwater runoff, and subsequently damages the ecosystem for aquatic life in the lake and is a threat to the health of children swimming in the lake.
Covering all the bases, the business interests won over their champion on the Flathead County Commission, Gary Hall, who made it his personal mission to eliminate an existing interlocal agreement between Flathead County and Whitefish City-County in order to push aside the Whitefish City-County government's jurisdiction over the "doughnut" area and thereby defeat the well-planned CAO that was years in the writing and included many public hearings and support from the ordinary citizenry of Whitefish.
The problem here is that Gary Hall went down to defeat in the Republican primary race in June by a 2-to-1 margin, indicating that he is now a "lame duck" politician without the support of the citizens anymore. Why should he be allowed to undo the efforts of the entire community of Whitefish in developing plans to govern themselves?
The Whitefish real estate broker who is the original, villainous instigator and leader of the opposition to Whitefish's jurisdiction of the doughnut area was present to give his usual scripted public testimony against the Whitefish City-County position and for the Flathead County position.
However (surprisingly), there were a few Whitefish Realtors present who place environmental considerations above capitalism and, at considerable professional risk, gave testimony that was for Whitefish City-County government retaining jurisdiction for planning and zoning in the doughnut area and for the CAO remaining in effect.
Where does this leave the people of Whitefish? You must hope that your city attorney, John Phelps, is a better advocate on your behalf before the Supreme Court than attorneys advocating for the business interests, and that the Supreme Court dispenses justice fairly by restoring jurisdiction to Whitefish under the original interlocal agreement with Flathead County.
In the meanwhile, your strategy should be to delay all Flathead County Planning Board decisions regarding the Whitefish doughnut area until a new Flathead County Commissioner is elected in the November general election and takes office in January.
Philosophically, a Democrat will likely support Whitefish and a Republican will likely support the Flathead County position.
Bill Baum is a political independent, a substitute teacher in Columbia Falls and Whitefish, and a Realtor serving all of Flathead County.