Don't burst the bubble

Letter from the Editor

Full disclosure: I enjoy tennis, and I have a membership at the Montana Athletic Club.

I don't envy the members on the Bigfork Land Use Advisory Committee. They have a mostly thankless job and often take the brunt of community frustration. (For some reason, that sounds strangely familiar.)

For the past year, I've gone to most of their meetings and watched as they spent innumerable hours listening to applications and pouring over the draft Bigfork Neighborhood Plan. Actually, the hours are not innumerable; they spent close to 4,000 years working on the plan, or so it felt.

You know what, they do a good job, but the decision last Thursday to deny the zoning variance for the Montana Athletic Club to build a bubble over its outdoor tennis courts was wrong, wrong, wrong.

According to zoning laws regulating the club's property, an accessory structure is allowed a maximum height of 15 feet. The request for 36 feet isn't exactly a minor variance.

Alex Hogle, who is with the Flathead County Planning and Zoning Office, recommended that the variance be approved. Unfortunately, public comment was heavily against the project.

BLUAC, rightfully so, has a growing track record of listening to public comment concerning applications. In this case, however, BLUAC had a responsibility to side with common sense. The bubble is a safe, reasonable addition to any health club facility that has tennis courts. No, it doesn't look like a beautiful, million-dollar home, but it's not some ugly monstrosity that nearby residents were whining about.

The main argument against the tennis bubble was this: It's ugly. It's an eyesore.

Well, so what? So are suburbans, plaid golf pants, and cookie-cutter condos - and there are plenty of those around. Now, before I get letters from the Plaid Pants and Suburban Owners Society of Super Architecture Design Committee members, let me say that just because I don't like how something looks doesn't mean it should be banned.

Get it? Subjective matters of taste should not rule the day when it comes to economic development.

This decision is a prime example of why Bigfork is gaining a well-earned reputation of being nothing more than a Disneyland for retirees. Nothing - no matter how valuable for the local economy - can trump the battle cry of, "But it doesn't look good!"

Unless your business is a one-story, Western-themed building that looks exactly like the building next to it, don't bother.

Sure, the economic impact of year-round tennis in Bigfork would be small, but every little bit helps. Instead of having to drive to Kalispell to play tennis in the winter, we would have a place to practice in Bigfork. What if the bubble meant creating 50 new jobs? What then? Do we refuse because the Harbor Village Design Review Committee (whatever that is) isn't pleased?

And, of course, never mind the fact that high school students might have a place to practice while the snow is melting off the other courts. Heavens, no. Think of how it would look! The Earth may actually stop turning if a dome of green fabric is erected.

Look, people have a right to shape the community they live in, but when the ability to reasonably expand a business is thwarted because some residents are much too interested in playing architecture police, something is wrong.

Here's hoping the county has the good sense to approve the bubble.