Ravalli County limits big box store size

Editor,

Week before last, Ravalli County enacted temporary zoning limiting new retail stores to a maximum size of 60,000 square feet. Ravalli's county commissioners unanimously approved this Big Box limit at a public meeting with almost 1,000 present. Lake and Ravalli counties both face proposed Wal-Mart Super Centers three times larger than any existing retail store in either county.

Polson and Lake County: Take notice. Ravalli and Lake counties are remarkably similar. Both are high growth rural areas. Both exist in the shadow of Missoula as dominant trade center. Both depend upon small business and agriculture as the historical core of each valley's economy and culture.

The difference is that the Bitterroot is Missoula's natural bedroom community, and thus started growing sooner and faster than Lake County. The Bitterroot now has 11,643 more residents than Lake County. The Bitterroot has boomed more and has costlier consequences to deal with (so far). We in Lake County can look south to the Bitterroot and see a bitter vision of our future. Highway 93 through Hamilton has grown into an ugly suburban-like commercial strip, which is one reason residents of Ravalli County are finally putting some limits on this accelerating sprawl.

How big is too big in small towns like Polson and Hamilton? I think the Bitterroot is on the right track: their new limit allows modern retail efficiencies while not sinking needed local competition. Ravalli County has now drawn a line in the sand, and wisely so. The Bitterroot has experienced a taste of the kind of "progress" that Wal-Mart is promoting in Polson with its proposal for an oversized, economy crushing, super center. In the Bitterroot, they now legally dictate that 60,000 square feet is big enough!

Are we in Lake County wise enough to make a similar choice?

Jay Wilson Preston

Charlo