Property rights in our county sacrificed
It seems that every time we open a newspaper, a new lawsuit has been filed against the county. With years of experience in dealing with planning and property rights issues in Flathead County, I would offer as an observation that there are four reasons for this phenomenon:
1. In recent years we have had a majority of member on the county planning board that have often forgotten their oaths to two Constitution's and the property owners rights to "due process" and "equal protection" guaranteed by those Constitutions. By doing so, this "citizen board" has done a great disservice to the county property owners they are supposed to be representing.
2. The county commission, for whatever reason, has turned complete rule-making authority on land issues over to its "professional planners." We have a situation where the "regulators" now make up the regulations that we property owners, the "regulated," have to abide by. As property owners, our input in this process has been largely ignored.
3. The county commission itself has ignored and dishonored their oaths to two Constitutions, abrogating their responsibility to protect the "rule of law." This has resulted in often arbitrary and unlawful private property restrictions being enacted, and legally indefensible land use decisions being made.
4. Finally, the attitude of this county government over the last few years has played a key role in the present rush to litigation on planning issues. In the county's zeal to empower its "professional regulators" to control the use of private property, this attitude is perhaps best exemplified by instructions given to the planning board by a Deputy Flathead County Attorney: "Don't worry about what's legal or not, just do what you want and the county will defend you."
In the past five years, over 30 lawsuits have been filed against Flathead County on planning and land use issues. This by far exceeds the number of lawsuits filed against the county on any other function performed by county government.
As more property owners come to the realization that their property rights have been sacrificed at the altar of the county's planning bureaucracy, we can, in the foreseeable future, expect to see significant increases in legal action taken against the county. The county's dysfunctional political leadership on land use issues, unfortunately, has led us to the point where private property rights can now only be exercised through litigation and court action.
The organization I chair, American Dream Montana, has filed one of the latest lawsuits. This lawsuit against the county's newly adopted Subdivision Regulations cites over 60 instances in which the county did not follow or intentionally ignores Montana law. It is telling that most of these citations were brought to the attention of the county before the unlawful regulations were adopted, on the recommendation of their "professional regulators," by a unanimous vote of the county commission.
We are now in the process of preparing a new lawsuit that will be filed if or when the county adopts its presently and equally unlawful, "Stream, River and Riparian Setback" proposal.
Even though the county's lawlessness on land use issues cost the county's taxpayers a great deal of money in additional insurance and legal fees, lawsuits like ours aren't the lawsuits that county property owners and taxpayers need fear. We are aware of at least two new lawsuits, just filed, and with more expected, that, if successful, may be seeking damages to the tune of millions or even tens of millions of dollars! Taxpayers, who do you think will be paying the bill for that?
If there is a lesson to be learned from all of these lawsuits, it is that the county government and this county commission is putting us all at risk as the county continues to operate like a "Banana Republic," simply making up the rules as they go along, while ignoring the "rule of law."
If the decision makers, the three county commissioners, aren't capable of reading or understanding the law, they would serve the public well by seeking competent legal council that can. The threats to our individual property rights and our pocketbooks demand it.
As we now see from the flurry of new lawsuits being filed against the county, "Don't worry about what's legal or not, just do what you want and the county will defend you," doesn't cut it anymore!
Russell Crowder lives in Marion.