Development should enhance

In the midst of a global pandemic which has most of the world on lockdown, there has been widespread reflection on the way we’ve been living and how it contributed to where we are now. Over-development, deforestation, excessive resource extraction, species extinction, over consumption ... This way of living is not sustainable. The very circumstances of this way of living brought us to the ecological, social, and health disaster the entire planet is now experiencing. This is a time when many people are considering if this is an opportunity to finally wake up and change our destructive ways.

With gas prices below zero, there is serious talk about a collapse of the entire fossil fuel industry and a renegotiation of how we use energy. Despite all of this, the Whitefish City Council was pressured into making the disastrous decision to pave over 6 acres of forest on U.S. Highway 93 to build a temple to the fossil fuel industry.

Never mind that the city is in the middle of creating a corridor plan that would include this property; never mind that there was overwhelming public opposition to the project; never mind that this development directly contradicts Whitefish’s own climate change plan; never mind that it will irrevocably mar the landscape and entrance to the town.

The legal framework wasn’t there to deny. The threat of a lawsuit, implicit in every turn, as every big developer in this small town holds that particular thumb screw to the Council, and to the town itself.

Yes, Council could have insisted, and should in every future development, a certain aesthetic. There are small towns all over the country that insist on wooden signage, or no chain stores. Despite the changing face of Council coming ever closer to reflecting the true desires of the town, they are often put in an untenable position to decide the lesser of evils.

Developers are egregious in their continuous drive toward money extraction over real investment, greed over grace, and cancerous growth to meet short term goals. There seems to be a nearly complete lack of ethical or moral values in the business world.

We do not need another gas station. And though this town has made some difficult and sometimes unpopular decisions for the common good, again and again the Council votes against their own moral compass, against their own honest conviction, showing a lack of courage to take on the Goliath’s of the world.

Without courageous and visionary leaders, in both government and business we are doomed to a reality of mercantilism, bankrupt, and disastrous public policy that serves the insatiable greed of the few over the wellbeing of both the community and the planet.

The oil industry will collapse at some point, likely not in the very far future. The crush of condominium eyesores, will soon enter foreclosure, and perhaps be re-purposed as employee and low income housing.

Wouldn’t it be lovely instead of having everyone loathe and despise the developers who prey on and extract wealth and leave behind their cheap and ugly buildings, the developers actually understood that they are also a part of this fabric of life.

Imagine a gas station with grass and gardens up to the edges of a small building. Of electric charging stations lining one side. Of organic gardens growing food that is served in the shop. Imagine new condos going up made of non-toxic recycled materials, using green building practices that do not account for 30% waste on site.

Imagine if the council could zone for that. Imagine if the developers wanted to build edifices to the brilliance of humanity, instead of appealing to the lowest common denominator of extraction, greed, and disposability.

Imagine if during this time of upheaval, we actually threw everything up into the air, rid ourselves of the bad behavior that has gotten us here, and let the pieces land again in a sustainable, regenerative way that gives everyone a living. We need to create a world where everyone can make an honest living, and stop making it so easy for the 1% to make a killing, at our expense.

Lauren Walker, Whitefish