Lakeshore regs approved with nine changes

Whitefish Pilot

The Whitefish City Council chambers were filled Monday with supporters and opponents to a proposed major update to the Whitefish lakeshore protection regulations.

After taking public comment and making a number of additional changes — some new definitions, some legal wordsmithing and a significant change to the section on nonconforming structures inside the 20-foot lakeshore protection zone — the updated regulations were approved 5-1, with councilor Turner Askew in opposition.

Mayor Mike Jenson opened the public hearing by noting that he would use his three-minute egg-timer to limit lengthy comment. Jenson also told the public to limit comments on whether children would be prohibited from skipping rocks or camping on the lakeshore, as suggested by recent radio ads, saying the issue "has been dealt with."

Current and former Flathead County Planning Board members George Culpepper and Charles Lapp said the councilors had been misled by claims that the county supported the proposed regulations. The two said neither the county commissioners nor county planning board members had reviewed the regulations.

Lakeshore property owner Debbie Biolo said she was concerned lakeshore protection committee members were videotaping private property for use in enforcement. She called the practice "unacceptable" and "appalling," and she asked the council to address the privacy issue.

City planner Nikki Bond later said private citizens have videotaped the shoreline twice — once in the early 1990s to establish a baseline, and again last year to update the baseline information. She said she never needed the video because evidence of a violation is easily seen on site. City personnel have take still photos of lakeshore properties when needed for enforcement purposes.

Cindy Schmid, who owns lakeshore property outside the city, wanted to know if the city had the authority to charge property owners in the two-mile planning jurisdiction, the "doughnut" area," with a misdemeanor for violating a lakeshore regulation.

"Nobody wants the regs done away with," Schmid's husband Scott said, but some sections were "ridiculous."

Dewey Hartman, a member of the lakeshore protection committee in the 1990s, said that by protecting water quality, the regulations increased property values along the lake. He characterized opposition as a "trifecta" of "fear, diversion and lawyer-speak."

Jane Solberg, a longtime member of the lakeshore protection committee, called the radio ads a "last minute" effort that provided false information and twisted the facts.

Lakeshore protection committee chairman Jim Stack reminded the council that the regulations have been in force for nearly 30 years , and it was the lakeshore property owners who led the legislative effort to get the regulations in place. Ninety percent of the original regulations remain intact, he said.

"This update makes very few content changes to the original regulations," he said. "Instead, it reorganizes and clarifies the regulations into a more user-friendly, easier-to-understand format."

Stack said the radio ads "have been not only misleading, they've been blatantly false." The updated regulations 'represent a delicate balance" between protecting property rights and protecting the lake, but "it's the public that owns Whitefish Lake, not the lakeshore property owners."

In light of the level of opposition, however, Stack proposed several amendments — especially to the most controversial section dealing with grandfathered structures inside the lakeshore protection zone. A boathouse has never burned down in 30 years, but the change would relieve the fears of property owners, he said.

The key change, which was approved by the council, separates nonconforming structures inside the lakeshore zone into houses and boathouse versus docks, decks, stairways, buoys or other structures. The amount of damage to a house or boathouse which a property owner can repair or replace without needing to go through a variance was increased from 50 percent to 90 percent. Other structures remain at 50 percent.