Alternatives to Dying Out
A New Publication for Eastern Montana’s Wide Open Spaces
There's about to be a new magazine in town-- or should I say, in 'the country.' Alternatives, an online publication based out of Plentywood, Montana, will explore topics like alternative energy development, eco-tourism, health and fitness, obesity and other issues facing communities in the vast, open spaces on the east side of the Great Divide.
Montana is a big state. 56 counties make up 147,046 square miles. An estimated 935,670 people live here. Montana is to the road tripper of the West what Ohio is to the road-tripper of the East, which is to say, if you’re just driving through, it will dominate your day, your life and your entire conscience until you cross out of its borders.
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Solving Missoula's Affordable Housing Puzzle, Part II
Can Density in Missoula Be Done Right?So how can Missoula do infill -- and density -- right?
It's a tough question. Many residents don't want Missoula to become a typical, densely developed city. They want to see its rural neighborhoods and large lots remain that way. They want to continue seeing open pastures and horses, trees and mountains.
In other words, they don't want change. Or growth. It's a natural emotion for many in Missoula, scarred by spiraling growth for the last two decades.
This is the second in a two-part series on affordable housing in Missoula. Click here for part one.
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Solving Missoula's Affordable Housing Puzzle, Part I
Missoula’s Community Cost of High Housing Prices
Missoula is at a critical stage when it comes to housing affordability. The actions taken -- or not taken -- by city officials in the next few years will decide whether we will see a mix of housing types within city limits, or whether infill will be discouraged and new development pushed further away from the city and key services. The issue affects every aspect of Missoula life, from traffic to taxes.
In this series, affordable housing advocates and infill opponents sound off on the density debate. The result will set the future of the city of Missoula -- how it grows, how its neighborhoods look and who gets to live in them.
This is the first in a two-part series on Missoula's affordable housing issue.
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Water Woes
The Rock Creek Subdivision: A Broader Look (Literally)
The controversy over an Oregon developer's plans for a 200-acre, 36-lot subdivision near Rock Creek just keeps getting juicier (or, actually, more watery). The developer, Michael Barnes, was in court yesterday to chit chat about construction at the site on a five-acre pond. The pond has been at the center of a battle between Barnes and the Rock Creek Protective Association, the group that has filed a suit claiming Barnes' LEMB Co. is violating state laws and excavating in a floodplain without the proper permits and county approval.
Perry Backus' dispatch in the Missoulian from yesterday's court hearing (in which the judge ruled to allow Barnes to work on the pond but nothing else on the propery until the suit gets worked out) begins painting a good picture of what's brewing down there: Allegations fly that Barnes is stealing water from other irrigators and Barnes alleges his neighbors, in a fit of "sabotage" opened a headgate sending water flooding into the site.
On Monday, filmmaker Rob Whitehair was able to take a helicopter flyover of the site and offers up a few photos showing what things are looking like on the ground ... from the air.
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Hotels, Movie Theatres and Mallrats
Kalispell Retail Development Moving Forwardhttp://dailyinterlake.com/articles/2006/05/03/news/news02.txt " title="Construction on the 46-acre site on U.S. Highway 93 called Hutton Ranch will begin in July">Construction on the 46-acre site on U.S. Highway 93 called Hutton Ranch will begin in July after a final approval by the Kalispell City Council on Monday to develop about 30 acres of the land. [more]
For Whitefish, Quainter is Better
New Big Mountain Master Plan More People-FriendlyWhitefish’s Big Mountain presented its new master plan to the Whitefish City-County Planning Board on April 20th, but decisions on the plan were postponed in order to sort out zoning issues. The new plan, which is intended to make the ski area’s village more people-friendly, includes three new lifts, dispersing development around a downsized village concept, and establishing an enlarged beginner skiing area away from the village.
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Planning Against Wal-Mart
Montana Community Rallies to Cap Big-Box StoresRavalli County Commissioners, after moving meeting venues twice to accommodate a crowd of some 1,300 people, passed a resolution Wednesday to limit the size of new retail stores in the county.
The crowd was overwhelmingly in support of the 60,000-square-foot cap on stores, although some did speak in favor of letting large retailers set up shop.
“It has been a watershed moment in the Bitterroot, with all these people coming out to support a zoning ordinance,” said Russ Lawrence of the Bitterroot Good Neighbors Coalition, a citizen group that supported the proposal. “I think people are just tired of having their futures happen to them. The people who live here and care about what happens here want a hand in their future."
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Growing Pains: Open Space
Future of Missoula Open Space Hinges on Money, a New Plan
In the last quarter century, Missoula has protected about 3,200 acres of wildlife habitat, conservation land, park space, trails and river bottomland in and around the growing and eclectic western Montana bustling city.
In the next few months, Missoula has to make some important steps to continue protecting open space, the most important of which may be revising the 1995 open space plan and pursuing another bond.
Editor's Note: This is the second in a series about open space in and around Missoula. Click here for the first installment on the fight to keep open lands in Missoula County.
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Packaging Tourism
The ‘Brokeback Mountain’ Vacation
For years now, Aaron Kampfe's gay and lesbian travel company, OutWest Global Adventures, has been offering a Montana ranch vacation on his family's 12,000 acre spread near Red Lodge. But now the trip has been renamed the "Montana 'Brokeback Mountain' Ranch Vacation" - and demand is so strong that Kampfe is adding extra dates.
Kampfe, who owns OutWest with his partner of nearly 20 years, David Heinzen, says, "We're the real Brokeback Mountain, only nicer and less tragic." And the OutWest site has some further reassurances: "The scenery and the cattle drives will remind you of riding with Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal; however, the lodge is far more comfortable than a tent and the food is much better than beans from a can."
Never mind that the movie is set in Wyoming, and was filmed in Canada; it's set off something of a ranch rush among gay vacationers all across the West.
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Growing Pains
The Fight to Keep Open Lands in Missoula County
Drive Mullan Road from Missoula to Frenchtown. Farm fields that were once home to grazing cattle, old red tractors and frolicking whitetail deer are now being dozed up and covered in manicured lawns, asphalt, spec homes and golf courses.
Increased pressures from development and population growth in Missoula County has led government officials, citizens and landowners to turn their attention to the land still left open. The City of Missoula has been working to conserve open space since the early 1980s, but it wasn't something the county dealt with. Now as development spills out of the city and more people look for that little piece of ground in the further reaches of the county, officials are taking on the controversial issue.
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