An effort at city-county compromise

Whitefish, which is known for its rigorous planning regulations, opted this week for a voluntary permit system to enforce zoning in the two-mile "extraterritorial" planning area surrounding the city.

The voluntary system replaces the original proposal for mandatory zoning-compliance permits and approved site plans before people could excavate or build in unincorporated areas.

As council member Nancy Woodruff put it, "We need to regulate with as light a hand as possible out there."

That's a commendable attitude and a welcome compromise to what had been shaping up as a classic city-vs.-county tug of war.

The mandatory permit plan encountered immediate opposition from the county side of the city border and could well have led to the county rescinding its OK of the planning-boundary agreement, therefore pushing Whitefish jurisdiction back to city limits.

This situation is a classic example of the conflicts that develop when urban and rural jurisdictions meet.

On the one hand, cities have a vested interest in areas beyond their boundaries that one day might become parts of the cities.

On the other hand, people living outside city limits have a justified reluctance to embrace city regulation without representation.

The only firm solution if a city wants complete adherence to urban zoning and planning standards (or if non-city dwellers want city services) is to annex areas beyond city limits. As an example, Kalispell - which has no jurisdiction over extraterritorial areas - has been annexing land so aggressively that the city has doubled its land area since 1990.

But annexation can be expensive both for the city and those being annexed.

More cooperation and less heavy-handed regulation would seem to be a logical compromise to the city/county divide.

Whitefish may have taken an important step in that direction with its move toward voluntary zoning enforcement. The current plan may not satisfy the desires of city planners to oversee development that may eventually be within the city limits, but it also won't cause so much heartburn for neighbors who today are happily living outside the city.