Commissioners, please take bus ride and rethink decision
It was discouraging to learn that the county recently declined to work collaboratively with the town of Whitefish to help ensure that the southern entrance to town has a chance to remain an attractive area free from helter-skelter development.
That is, recent comments by Commissioner Mitchell, Commissioner Holmquist, and an Inter Lake article stating that “the commissioners in no uncertain words said no thanks to Whitefish” were very disheartening. Why? First, the unwillingness of our elected officials to work in collaboration with a community that has a vested interest in preserving its integrity and that of the surrounding area seems very short-sighted.
Second, the long-term effort by managers and citizens of Whitefish has succeeded greatly in bringing significant tourist dollars, businesses, and new homeowners into Whitefish area. In my opinion, that success is largely due to careful and thoughtful planning. The corridors out of Whitefish right now are still mostly attractive, but visual pollution has increasingly crept into the corridor south and east of Whitefish during recent years. For example, several unattractive billboards now exist in the area, and some unsightly commercial development has recently moved in. In addition, a controversial new casino evidently is slated for the corner of U.S. 93 and Hodgson Road in the Happy Valley area. Compare the corridors in/out of Whitefish with the corridors in/out of Kalispell. Whitefish is attractive; Kalispell is not.
I have the following suggestion for our county commissioners: If you are rejecting a corridor study, do your own empirical assessment by taking a bus ride together. Please visit my prior home town of Polson. Doing so would provide much needed perspective about the effects of no planning, poor planning and willy-nilly development. That is, Polson used to be one of the most visually beautiful places in the Western United States but not anymore.
Why? The junction of U.S. 93 and Montana 35 on the town’s south side has become severely visually polluted. Whereas the area used to be comprised largely of apple orchards and farms — with a priceless lake backdrop — the south side is now a mishmash of billboards, box stores, and fast food joints. And Polson’s north side toward Sunny Slope Hill, has likewise been impacted by billboards, junk and willy-nilly development. In short, both entrances to Polson are akin to driving through a junkyard. Similarly, the U.S. 93 corridors on Kalispell’s south and north sides, and U.S. 2 East to Columbia Falls, have also greatly suffered from a lack of wise planning.
As a property owner in Whitefish and Kalispell, I would strongly support collaborative planning between Flathead County and Whitefish. I am respectfully asking our commissioners and local planners take that bus ride to Polson, leaving south out of Kalispell. Doing so might help them rethink their position on shutting Whitefish out of any planning decisions that could directly affect what the community has worked so long to achieve. A Supreme Court ruling about jurisdiction in this matter did not include precluding communities from working together for the greater good.
Synergy is the creation of a whole that is greater than the simple sum of its parts. The term synergy comes from the Attic Greek work synergia from synergos, meaning “working together.” It is an important concept when resources are diminishing. Why are elected officials choosing to close off the possibility that if we agree to work together, we can achieve something more valuable for all of us? Sharing smaller spaces requires more manners, not less. Sharing smaller spaces requires more planning, not less.
Barrett is a Kalispell area resident.