Dunk doughnut

Flathead County commissioner Gary Hall has astutely recognized that the Whitefish doughnut should be exempt from the proposed critical areas ordinance.

Hall is rightly worried about "cost, regulatory burdens, a steep decline in property rights and, potentially, property values."

Now the Whitefish City Council can go one step further. They can, together with the county, get rid of the doughnut idea altogether.

The September 2005 inter-local agreement handed Whitefish control of not only "drainage" but all planning, zoning and subdivision review within the two-mile extraterritorial jurisdiction.

The only problem is that those of us who live in that jurisdiction have no say in its governance.

The city and the county should do the right thing: Dunk the doughnut entirely.

Phil Cardan

Whitefish