District 3 candidates differ on zoning

Two West Valley residents with opposing takes on the county’s growth policy are vying for the open Flathead County Commissioner seat in District 3.

Clara Mears-LaChappelle, 60, is running as a Democrat against Republican Gary Krueger, 53, in the Nov. 6 general election for the seat being vacated by Commissioner Dale Lauman. The two squared off at a recent commissioner debate sponsored by the Daily Inter Lake at Flathead Valley Community College.

District 3 covers the southwestern portion of Flathead County. All county voters will vote in the District 3 race.

Mears-LaChappelle spent much of her professional life as a bookkeeper, executive secretary and business owner. She operated Gourmet Buns on the Run Bakery for 20 years and worked as an emergency medical technician for 14 years.

Krueger is a 1977 graduate of Flathead High School and is a former owner of Flathead Valley Concrete. He currently works on the family farm and helps his son operate a gravel pit.

Candidates were peppered with a wide variety of topics at the debate, but planning and zoning was the one area where Krueger and Mears-LaChappelle showed the most contrast.

Zoning can be troublesome for the county, Krueger said.

“It pits neighborhoods against neighborhoods,” he said. “Zoning gets used as a weapon against another property owner.”

“If used properly for the protection of public health and safety, it can be used as a tool. However, half the county currently is zoned and half isn’t. The unzoned part is getting all the growth.”

Krueger cited West Valley as an example of a bedroom community that would benefit from zoning that allowed more businesses to locate in that area. It would increase West Valley’s tax base and help West Valley School, he added.

Mears-LaChappelle called zoning an important tool that needs to be used by the county.

“If you take zoning and open it up to anything, you’re going to have a free-for-all,” she said. “You’re going to have industrial on top of small parcels of land.”

She cited the gravel pits in West Valley.

“They have really torn out West Valley and the people out there are really upset,” she said. “You’re entitled to do what you need with your property to survive, but not at the cost of your neighbor.”

Krueger, an advocate of property rights, said he is against the idea of “cluster” development.

“We have open country here,” Krueger said. “People are here because they like that openness. They want to build in the timber. If you were to use the cluster provision where you say every house has to be built within one mile of Kalispell, Whitefish or Columbia Falls, you’re going to look exactly like Las Vegas.”

Candidates were asked about how they would handle the Whitefish planning doughnut.

Mears-LaChappelle said she would get doughnut residents together with county and city staff for a discussion, and possibly put the issue to a vote.

“The community needs to be involved in this,” she said.

Krueger said local issues need to be handled locally. He said there are likely some doughnut residents who would “welcome the city to have some thought in what their planning process is.”

“We need to sit down as commissioners with the better heads up there in Whitefish and come to an agreement on what amount of control is acceptable up in that area,” he said. “I think that if cooler heads would prevail and we got in the mode of working out the issue rather than litigate the issue, I think we’d be much better off.”

Candidates were asked if they would listen to ideas from groups on opposite ends of the political spectrum, such as “smart-growth” advocate Citizens for a Better Flathead and property-rights advocate American Dream Montana.

Both organizations have a right to free speech, Krueger said, but most often decisions are made based on the middle.

“That’s how we do things in America,” he said. “Thank God for free speech.”

Mears-LaChappelle said both groups are trying to protect the valley.

“They have a right to come to the commissioners and speak their piece.” she said. “I will listen to these people.”

She said she’s been on the other side and knows what it’s like to go in front of the commissioners.

In her closing statement, Mears-LaChappelle said she wasn’t a politician, “just a concerned citizen.”

“I will have an open door policy,” she said. “I’m willing to listen. That’s what we need.”

Krueger said his campaign was all about jobs.

“We don’t have the good paying jobs that we need,” he said. “It’s jobs, it’s jobs, it’s jobs.”