The Flathead County Commission sent a letter to the City of Whitefish challenging a piece of lakeshore property the city is seeking to annex.
During its May 25 meeting, the commission voted unanimously to send the letter to the Whitefish city manager, council, and parks department. It details the county’s objections to the attempted annexation of a property on West Lakeshore Drive.
Whitefish is seeking to bring 26 properties on West Lakeshore Drive into the city limits, but one of them is a county park.
Commissioner Phil Mitchell said constituents had concerns about the park’s ownership changing.
“The neighbors just said we would like it left as a county park, not a city park,” Mitchell said.
He also said he would like to handle the issue sooner rather than later.
“I just want this addressed now, not after the city seems to keep overstepping its boundaries at times,” Mitchell said.
Deputy county attorney Tara Fugina told the commission that the Flathead County Parks Department maintains and uses the park, and annexing it into the city would be “improper.”
Commissioner Pam Holmquist agreed with Fugina’s take, as did Commissioner Gary Krueger. Included in the letter is a piece of Montana statute that specifically does not allow the annexation of county parks that are wholly surrounded by other property being or already annexed.
The Whitefish City Council is taking a close look at potential annexation projects in the future, including talks in April about bringing Lion Mountain into the city limits as a way to clean up septic leachate polluting Whitefish Lake.
In 2014, Flathead County took jurisdictional control of an land surrounding Whitefish after the state Supreme Court deemed it so. The land, known as the doughnut, is now under county zoning.