Community council proposal surfaces

A new proposal to create a community council for Whitefish’s two-mile planning area was introduced Tuesday night during a city-county “doughnut” meeting.

Marilyn Nelson, who lives in the doughnut area, said an informal group has been working on the proposed resolution. It will be presented for consideration at the Sept. 7 Whitefish City Council meeting. There are 25 co-signers of the resolution.

The proposal is to have the Flathead County commissioners establish an elected community council that would represent the doughnut area.

Once the City Council gives tentative approval to zoning text amendments, growth-policy amendments or rezoning proposals affecting the two-mile area, the measure would be sent to the community council for review and comments.

The interlocal agreement would provide that if the doughnut council declines to approve a measure or recommended against it, then the City Council would not give final approval to the measure and it would be dropped.

The resolution points out that the unincorporated towns of Lakeside and Bigfork have similar community councils. However, those councils have no authority beyond making recommendations.

Nelson said the resolution came about as she and others saw the committee moving forward with a solution they didn’t see as meaningful.

“We’ve told you our concerns. This should not come as a surprise,” Nelson said.

Nelson said after the meeting that she’s concerned about the idea of having the county weigh in on land-use decisions made since Whitefish took control of the doughnut in 2005.

“It scares me to death that the county commissioners with a vote of two could vote down thousands of hours of community process,” she said.

The proposed community council would include seven voting members elected at large. Six of the positions would come from specific areas of the doughnut, including East Lakeshore, Big Mountain neighborhood plan area, the Northwoods-to-East Edgewood area including Haskill Basin, southeast area of Whitefish north of Montana 40, Karrow Avenue-Blanchard Lake area and Lion Mountain area.

A planner from the Whitefish Planning Office would serve as a nonvoting member of the council.

Commissioner Jim Dupont, a committee member representing the county, said afterwards that he believes the committee needs to keep moving forward with a new interlocal agreement that focuses on joint cooperation.

He wondered if giving a community council power beyond an advisory capacity is legal, and if it is, whether such a council could be effective.

“It [the doughnut] is such a huge, diverse area, I don’t think you could get seven people to agree on anything,” Dupont said. “It’s a big fallacy to believe you could pull it off.”