Maybe it looked like it made sense…

Maybe it looked like it made sense in 1999 to oppose the Glacier Mall coming to Kalispell.

Many people are instinctively afraid of change, after all, and James "Bucky" Wolford's dream of building the largest mall in Montana somewhere in the Kalispell area might have been intimidating to people who lived here partly because it was a nice small town.

But that was six years ago.

Today, almost all of the worries of the anti-mall faction have been satisfied or proven irrelevant.

Think of it. The first and foremost reason for opposing the mall was because the original site was in Evergreen on top of a shallow aquifer. Wolford heard those concerns and moved the site.

Another significant argument raised against the new mall was that it would hurt downtown Kalispell, the traditional retail center of the Flathead Valley. Well, six years later, the new retail center of the Flathead Valley is north of Kalispell. Lowe's, Home Depot, Target, Petco, Borders and others have already built there. Still to come is a new 14-screen cineplex, plus a variety of other retail and commercial development including a major car lot.

Remarkably, the opponents of Wolford's mall have been virtually silent on the massive commercial growth that has already taken place. It is only the mall which they oppose.

Perhaps they are legitimately concerned about the survival of Kalispell Center Mall, but that is a matter for the marketplace. It's not up to government representatives to take sides in business battles. If Kalispell Center Mall is serving its customers well, then it will survive and flourish. Likewise the new Glacier Mall.

And, indeed, likewise downtown Kalispell. What has been particularly gratifying the past six years is watching downtown Kalispell thrive despite the naysayers and despite problems in downtowns elsewhere. There is much that can be done to continue to help downtown make its transition from a 1950s-era economy to a 2005 one, but that must happen with or without a new mall.

Adaptation is ultimately the key to survival. Wolford adapted when he changed his original plans and took an option on land north of town. Downtown is adapting to its new role as a business center rather than a retail center. Small businesses throughout the local economy are adapting to the arrival of bigger national competitors here.

And so it seems like a reasonable request now to ask the opponents of Bucky Wolford's mall to step back and reconsider their position. They have just lost one more in a string of important votes and court cases and they have to decide whether to continue to obstruct a $150 million project that, by one estimate, would bring 1,400 jobs, add as much as $3.6 million per year in annual tax revenue for the county, and increase consumer choice in the Flathead exponentially.

Lawsuits are always an attractive alternative for interest groups that want to affect public policy without taking the time to get the public on their side. Such lawsuits have stalled our community college's expansion by more than two years and have resulted in endless delays in timber sales on national forests, contributing to the closure of several mills and the loss of hundreds of jobs.

We hope the opponents of Glacier Mall are not just obstructionists. We hope they will take a minute to think about why they oppose the mall and whether they should try to impose their will on the community.

One opponent already said that the chance of an appeal is high, but what do they hope to gain? District Judge Stewart Stadler granted Wolford's and Flathead County's request for summary judgment in the case that challenged the county's 2003 approval of a growth policy amendment and zone change for the mall.

The lawsuit by North 93 Neighbors argued that the commissioners did not follow proper procedures, but Stadler dismissed that argument out of hand. "The growth policy and zoning statutes spell out specific requirements for public notice and public participation. These requirements were met," he said. "[The commissioners' decision] was not arbitrary and capricious."

In the wake of such a ruling, an appeal is clearly a lost cause. Opponents should regroup and prepare to make their case during the subdivision review about how to get the best mall possible. If instead they pursue further legal action, it will be they who will be viewed as "arbitrary and capricious," not the commissioners.