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."