McGrew committed to retaining Whitefish character
Martin McGrew sees himself as a moderate, and that's a good thing, he says, because moderates have the ability to see both sides of an issue.
"I'll continue to ride the fence until I have enough information to jump off," he said. "The most usable surface is always in the middle. It's tough being a moderate, but it's what's best for the greater good."
As chairman of the Whitefish City-County Planning Board, McGrew knows well the issues and challenges facing the resort town.
"We've had a lot of tenuous applications from the city as well as developers," he said. "It's required a lot of work and is probably indicative of what we'll continue to look at.
"This is very important work and you have to commit the time and energy," he added. "Whitefish is my adopted home town and I'm heavily committed to seeing it retain its character."
As McGrew sees it, the biggest challenge facing Whitefish is the "serious polarization" among segments of the community that has developed over the past few months.
The challenge "is how to pull diversified special-interest groups together for a common cause," he said, "to pull back as a community and work with common sense … to create congruency."
MCGREW SAYS he philosophically believes in the proposed critical areas ordinance to handle drainage issues, but believes it needs some fine-tuning.
"Anytime you enact a new ordinance, in effect, you are taking away something from somebody," he said. "The overall goal, however, is the result of the ordinance is greater than what you're taking away."
McGrew advocates educating the public about how the new law will affect citizens. Public workshops would go a long way toward understanding the complexities of the critical areas legislation and how to use it.
"My experience is that developers can find amazingly creative ways to work within those rules," he said.
McGrew said his research indicates that other cities that have passed similar water-quality laws have dealt with initial controversy, "but after a couple years everyone settles down and realizes it's best for the community and learns to work within it."
The city can't shirk its responsibility in governing its two-mile planning area, McGrew maintained.
"We've been asked by the county to be responsible [for that area]. We should be extremely involved," he said. "Unfortunately the state mandates those people can't vote" for city officials.
There's a fine line between property rights and good land-use planning, he said, and without some control, commercial strip development could take away from Whitefish's character as "a little ski town."
REGARDING recent public criticism over city spending and the budget, McGrew said he hasn't gone over the budget line by line, but feels the last city audit that gave Whitefish a superlative rating is an indication the city is on track.
Growth - a 53 percent increase in population since 2000 - drives the need for capital improvements, pure and simple, he said.
"Show me a corporation that grows that much and doesn't have to do capital improvements," he said.
Traffic and parking are big problems facing Whitefish and there's no easy solution to either, McGrew said.
"I'm not convinced the city needs to get into the parking-garage management business. I think there are some viable options for the private sector to get involved," he said.
McGrew doesn't believe it serves Whitefish well to construct buildings significantly higher than the current 35-foot limit. Land values are high and he understands developers' desire to be able to put as many units as possible into a project.
"But it's not the city's responsibility to protect the developer's investment," he added.
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com