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11/04/01 DI/No Man's Land'No 7 1 d Mall gkeeps property lannin dis ute in limbo p p Landowners call approval process for Glacier Mall `frustrating' would- be�developed .someday. since it took center stage in James what they wanted to do with it," B WILLIAM L. SPENCE Y Someday didn't turn out as "Bucky" Wolford's plans to build a Another wanted to buy and devel- The Daily Inter Lake expected, though. John Jump died, 750,000-square-foot regional mall. op the property piece by piece, Darlene remarried, and the farm . Wolford has optioned several prop- rather than pay for the entire 80 When John and Darlene Jump today is a kind of no man's land, erties in the area northeast of the acres at one time. bought the property in 1994,: they naught in the planning dispute that Reserve/LaSalle intersection - more But from the beginning, Wolford did it with an eye to the future, surrounds the biggest retail propos- than 200 acres total, he said — but the was different. During their initial looking to build a nest egg for their al in Flathead County's history. Jump property, with its highway meetings in 1999, he made it clear he retirement. "This is all very frustrating," said frontage and unobstructed views, is wanted to build a regional mall. He The property, an old farm, was Darlene, now Darlene Jump Rauthe. the key piece in the mall puzzle. talked about the type of tenants he located near the intersection of East "The most frustrating thing has Other developers have expressed would bring in, and why he thought Reserve Drive and LaSalle Road. It been that so many people have so interest in the property, as well, this was the right place to build the was a good spot, with plenty of much to say about what we do with Almost from the day the Jumps largest shopping center in Montana. frontage along the highway and, at our land." acquired it, offers have been made. "He was so up front about every- 80 acres, plenty of room to support a Opinions about that particular "The fast was from a company in thing," Rauthe said. "He was able to large project. piece of farmland have sprouted like Salt Lake City," Rauthe said. "But There seemed little doubt that it weeds over the past two years, ever they absolutely refused to tell us See LAND on Page A3 generated Sewer extension years ago this month sold Wol- Evergreen, the quality of look you in the eye. I think that was important. You could believe him." "We haven't caught him in anything," said Carl Rauthe, Darlene's second husband. "He's taken suggestions. That's what we like about him. He's trying to get along." However, Wolford's efforts to get along haven't gotten him very far, at least where Kalispell is concerned. He's spent two years trying to convince the city to grant him access to sewer service, either directly or indirectly via the Evergreen Sewer Dis- trict (he's said he'll pay to extend the lines), and the City Council still needs to act on his recent request for a master, plan amendment that would allow the project to proceed. "I knew it would be difficult, but I didn't expect it to take this long," said Rauthe, who two or e irs o sever options to buy her property. "I didn't anticipate that the city would have so much say. It irritates me to no end that they're so involved, but we can't vote on anything they do." As she spoke, Rauthe was sit- ting in her immaculate home about two miles from the pro- posed mall site. She's lived there since 1967, watching. as Ever- green developed around her. That growth, particularly along the LaSalle commercial strip, is one of the primary rea- sons for Kalispell's cautious approach to Wolford's proposal. In fact, the city has only to look at a decision made 10 years ago — to allocate sewer treatment capacity to Ever- green — for a case lesson as to why the mall should be han- dled so carefully, according to Tom Jentz, director of the Tri- City Planning Office. "By bringing sewer out to UV e opment unproved dra- matically and intensified," Jentz said. "New uses pushed out towards the airport, and a. substantial amount of busi- ness moved out of Kalispell. It allowed Evergreen to become the commercial focus." The decision was made with the best intentions, Jentz explained. Water quality was a major problem in the area, and extending public sewer was the best solution. However, there was "an urgency to the approval," he said, in part because the feder- al programs needed to pay for the infrastructure were disap- pearing. Consequently, "for the sake of an environmental problem that needed to be taken care of, we didn't fully address all the issues," Jentz said. "The rea- son I say that is because 10 years later we're still dealing with those issues." Evergreen's development Wolford's mall presents the same concerns about economic flight and tax -base erosion. Even if the site were annexed — something Wolford has said he favors — extending sewer to the area would help create the dominant commercial center, not just in Kalispell, but in northwest Montana. "Every business will want to be near the mall," Jentz said. "It won't be 100 percent growth — there will be a lot of shifting from other areas. The trick is to fill in those vacancies; if you can't, your tax base erodes. "To say this proposal should be dealt with in 60 days isn't realistic," he said. "Once the decision is made, we're going to live with it, so the idea is to do it well." But until the decision is made, it's the Rauthes — and Wolford, and local consumers — who have to live with it. And therein lies the dilem- ma, according to Greg Stevens, president of the Kalispell City - County Planning Board, which in August recommended approval of Wolford's master plan amendment. "I'm real nervous about the idea of a municipal govern- ment manipulating the free enterprise system in favor of one interest or another — such as downtown businesses," Stevens said. "It puts them (the Kalispell City Council) in the position of deciding the eco- nomic future of the valley, and I'm not sure they're qualified. "I understand that freedom has some sharp edges," he said. "Maybe someone does some- thing stupid with their proper- ty. Maybe they sell it to a busi- ness that makes it tougher for (existing) businesses. But if you try to take away those sharp edges, you run into a whole new set of problems that aren't as visible — there are some real blunt hammer blows when you turn everything over to a central planning office. "A lot of us old-timers ... have an affection for a person's right to do what they think best for their family," said Stevens, who's lived in the Flathead since 1949. "If each person is free to decide their own welfare, then the overall general welfare is better off." Sitting in their dining room, it's hard for the Rauthes to understand how such funda- mental disputes between per- sonal freedoms and the public good can be resolved by an 80- acre field of dill. After a life- time in the valley, they've both seen plenty of changes here — some good, some bad, but few that could be avoided. "I was born in Somers in 1930," Carl said. "I liked it bet- ter here years ago, but I can't stop progress. Can you?" Reporter Bill Spence may be reached at 758-4459 or by e-mail at bspence@dailyinterlake.com D m 0 co O w (O (n O A) cr AD 0 O' (D Q (D (D O (D O (D (D A> O (Q C N 2) S=r (D O r' (D O r. S (D O O O (D Q n (D O 7. m (D cQ o (n (D r r 0 N 7 w w 7 r w x CD