Support local control: Let the people be free

Kalispell Mayor Mark Johnson had some choice words for legislators in advance of the 2025 session. To anyone looking to seize more control from local municipalities: Back off.

“It’s an insidious cancer, taking away local governments’ ability, local citizens’ ability to craft their future at the community level,” Johnson said about the overreach from the Capitol last session. “All hail [Gov. Greg Gianforte], is what we are looking to.”  

Johnson specifically pointed to 2023’s Senate Bill 382, known as the Montana Land Use Planning Act. The new law demands that cities with 5,000 or more residents within a county exceeding 70,000 people adopt a new land-use plan. Once the plan is in place, public comment and Council input is limited, shifting authorization to the city’s Planning Department. Locally, it affects Kalispell, Whitefish and Columbia Falls, where much effort had already been put into land-use documents.