The river of growth won't be denied
In My View-Dave Skinner
With the dogfight over the Whitefish planning issues in full howl, I'd like to add some snarls of my own.
To begin, I feel the attacks by certain citizens against the county commission are not only vindictive, but stunningly bad judgment.
Fahcrynoutloud, if someone is bigger than you, and you want them to give you something, don't threaten them. Don't insinuate their lack of "particular skills." Don't say that trusting them "seems like a stretch." Instead, ask nice. If you don't want to ask nice, well, if you don't have a locked and cocked 1911A1 already in hand, you dang well better have the law on your side. In this case, the critics don't.
The original 1967 joint planning agreement is not binding. It is allowed, but not mandated. State law requires only a one-mile planning zone adjacent to city limits, which changes as annexations are made. I'm sad to say that the cooperation, collaboration and consensus that existed back in the day when a handshake meant something, simply no longer exists.
The two-mile zone now proposed is twice as much as required by law. That it will enclose Whitefish Lake is a darn good deal for Whitefish. Push too hard, and the outcome will be "Bad City, No Donut."
Next, some comments on land-use planning as a concept. Some view land-use planning as being anticipatory, as in this definition from Wordnet: "the cognitive process of thinking about what you will do in the event of something happening." In other words, you try to anticipate the future by making plans.
Others view planning as prescriptive. Here's the plan, and woe to those who don't follow it. Well, gee. I planned to be a millionaire, but I'm not. Should I change my plan, or make everyone else change theirs? The computer game SimCity (a land-use simulation) illustrates the difference. You're the planner, and if you don't anticipate well, catch trends in time, and address those trends, your dream city becomes a smoking hole PDQ. SimCity poses a lesson to those who think they can plan the future down to every dotted "i" and crossed "t." I would certainly recommend that advocates of a "fortress Whitefish" policy give SimCity a whirl.
I suppose you could hack into the SimCity program and impose regulation routines, but in the real world, you'd inevitably have SimCity West spring up…you know, like Evergreen? Ask Citizens for a Better Flathead director Brian Mau about how "smart growth" in Eureka, Calif. led to a retail boom in nearby McKinleyville.
The incredible growth pressure on this valley and this state is like a raging river. Building a planning "dam" might choke off the flow for a bit, but what if it keeps raining? Do you order God to stop raining or making that darn gravity? I don't think so. God has His plan, and doesn't give a rip what yours is.
The choice is either to figure out what the big guy has in mind, or go down ugly.
The folks moving here are like that river, a river that won't let up until either the national economy comes unglued, or the baby boomer retirement wave peters out in about 20 years, if it ever does. Period. They have plans. We either anticipate what they want and make it all fit, come up with a better deal, or go down ugly.
As for state lands, the possibility that they may be developed into more trophy homes makes me barf. I'm a member of the best rifle range in the entire Northwest, which is parked in some pretty amazing wildlife habitat.
To lose that to a bunch of land-wasting 20-acre "lifestyle estates" would be just criminal But there is that pesky trust obligation, and there is that river-gravity-rain thing.
The Whitefish State Lands Advisory Committee faces a huge opportunity. If it comes up with ideas that people will genuinely buy into with their own money, that maximizes the full range of value of those lands and uses them most efficiently, it will have earned the support of the entire county. But if it doesn't….well, the river won't be denied.
Dave Skinner, in his own words, "is one grumpy Whitefish citizen who is tired of being nagged to be better."