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10/30/01 DI/City Moves to Block County Action on MallK-alispell o By WILLIAM L. SPENCE The Daily Inter Lake Kalispell is asking a district court judge to block Flathead County's recent approval of a master plan amendment relat- ed to a proposed regional mall in Evergreen. Acting City Attorney Charles Harball said the move isn't directed at Wolford moves to block county Development's plans to build a 750,000-square-foot shopping mall near the intersection of West Reserve Drive and LaSalle Road. Rather, he said, the legal action was prompted by the commissioners' decision to unilaterally approve Wolford's request to amend the Kalispell City -County Master Plan. The amendment would allow commercial use of the pro- posed mall site. The county also approved. Wolford's request to change the zoning on 145 acres to commercial. The master plan is intended to guide land -use decisions within the joint city -county planning jurisdiction. Any amendment to the document must be agreed to by both gov- erning bodies. However, when the commis- sioners unanimously approved action on Evergreen mall Wolford's request on Sept. 28, they deleted language that delayed implementation of the change until the Kalispell City Council had approved it. "This action reflects (the commissioners') determination that the consent and joint approval by Kalispell ... was not required, and that the county was therefore autho- rized to go forward and amend the zoning," states the petition for declaratory judgment that the city filed on Friday. Kalispell has yet to act on Wolford's master plan request. The city had 30 days in which to protest the county's action. Harball said if the peti- tion hadn't been filed, it could be argued that the council agreed with the amendment. "Had we not taken this action, the county could have argued that they had our tacit approval," he said. The petition asks the court to determine that the county's actions are "ineffective and void." "I don't think this will have much impact on Wolford at all," Harball said. "It isn't our intention to put them in the middle." . That was cold comfort to See MALL on Page A3 City moves to block county action on mall ames `Bucky" Wolford, presi- ent of Wolford Development. "Even though this action isn't irected at me, it's still causing roblems," Wolford said during telephone interview on Mon- 3y. "I feel like I'm hung =.tween two giants who are fighting. rm in limbo. I can't seem to move forward." Friday's petition was the sec- ond legal action Kalispell has filed against the county this year. Together with Whitefish, it also filed a lawsuit last April regarding the distribution of about $250,000 in cash reserves left over from the regional plan- ning office, which was disband- ed in July. The disagreement between the two governing bodies on land -use issues is so sharp that Wolford could conceivably do everything one side asks, but end up annoying the other side to the point that his proposal would be stymied. "I guess this problem is a lot bigger than my project," he said. "I'm caught between a rock and a hard place, and I don't think that's a position a businessman should have to be in. I've invested a lot of money in this project, and I'd just like to know whether I can do it or not."