Doughnut' residents pack council meeting

By RICHARD HANNERS / Whitefish Pilot

The city council chambers were packed by concerned county residents Jan. 22 when the Whitefish City Council held its first public hearing on the proposed critical areas ordinance.

While many of them had something to say about the ordinance, they also had something to say about regulation without representation.

Mayor Mike Jenson, who said passing the critical areas ordinance would put the "cart before the horse," has proposed a township form of government for Whitefish and its two-mile extraterritorial planning jurisdiction — nicknamed the "doughnut."

"We need to address the representation issue first, prior to enacting further ordinances that affect these people," he said.

Jenson said the "doughnut" area could be divided into maybe half a dozen "neighborhood" areas, such as the Karrow Avenue, Monegan-Voerman and East Edgewood areas, the Highway 40 and U.S. Highway 93 South corridors, and Big Mountain.

"Neighborhood planning is already underway west of town for the A Trail Runs Through It project," he said.

Neighborhoods could be combined for election purposes, and two or three representatives could be sent to the city council. These county representatives could only vote on issues covered by the city-county interlocal agreement — planning, zoning, subdivision review, lakeshore regulation and floodplain regulation within the two-mile "doughnut" area.

City attorney John Phelps, who is approaching the issue by looking at the city charter, said adding two or three representatives to the council for the "doughnut" residents might not work, considering the amount of opposition at the Jan. 22 council meeting. The council will need to look at the level of discontent in the "doughnut" and then establish the number of representatives needed, he said.

"Even that might not quench the discontent," he said.

City officials have pointed out that while "doughnut" residents don't pay city taxes, they enjoy the benefits of city roads, parks and other infrastructure when they come to Whitefish to shop and recreate.

But new regulations for county residents, including the recently adopted growth policy and the proposed critical areas ordinance, have triggered a storm of protest by "doughnut" residents.

Larry Campbell told the council he was "not a happy doughnut man."

"Why should you have the right to tell us what to do?" he asked. "How can you treat someone 2.1 miles away differently than someone 1.9 miles away?"

Campbell said he was "perturbed with a county commissioner" and was willing to come up with $2,000 for attorney fees to fight the city.

"I know how small government works — you creepy crawl," he said. "Next you'll require architectural review of my house."

Tom Thomas suggested several alternatives — the city could ignore the issue, but county residents are "becoming aware," adopt Jenson's township proposal, but the "doughnut" would not be fairly represented, let the county residents vote on whether they want to remain in the "doughnut," or "split the baby" by creating two separate-but-equal councils.

Scott Wagner said he wanted county representation on the city council to reflect population.

Recent census estimates put the population at 7,723 in the city and 4,724 in the "doughnut." A council based on representation by population would favor the city by nearly 2-to-1.

Casey Malmquist brought a little levity to the meeting when he described how he tried to explain the "doughnut" issue to his 16-year-old daughter.

"She said, 'I know why they call it a doughnut — there's a big hole in the logic,'" Malmquist said.

Rep. Mike Jopek, D-Whitefish, who lives in the "doughnut," noted that Flathead County is about the size of Connecticut. He asked if residents in the "doughnut" preferred people in Marion making decisions about their property rather than Whitefish. He also warned the council about solving the representation issue with a top-down solution.

"The city can't tell the county people how to do this," he said.

Councilor Nancy Woodruff agreed with Jopek's point.

"It should not come from the top down. It should be a public process," she said. "But I don't want to waste staff time. We need to see what they want."

Councilor Shirley Jacobson agreed with Woodruff but went even further.

"I've talked to people who don't like these new ideas, but they couldn't explain why," she said. "Maybe we should just give them back to the county."