Huge Turnout Moves Hamilton Officials to Implement Size Cap

For Russ Lawrence of Hamilton, Montana's Chapter One Bookstore, April 12 was a "watershed" moment for Ravalli County, Montana. On that night, the county commissioners held a public hearing regarding a proposal to limit new retail development to a 60,000-square-foot size cap, a move that has the potential to bar a Wal-Mart from opening in the area.

Lawrence -- who, with the Bitterroot Good Neighbor Coalition, wrote and submitted the proposed size cap three weeks before -- didn't know exactly what to expect at the hearing. How many residents were concerned enough about sprawl to show up?

That pivotal question, and much more, was answered succinctly and loudly when residents began arriving at the hearing in droves ... and kept arriving ... and arriving.

When all was said and done, a meeting that was scheduled for a room that accommodates 40 people had to be moved twice, first to the middle school auditorium, and finally to the nearby middle school gym in order to seat some 1,400 residents. The turnout, said Lawrence, "was a jaw-dropping spectacle."

While Wal-Mart's recent pronouncement that it was looking to bring one of its mega-stores to Hamilton brought a sense of urgency to the proceedings, Lawrence said that he and the Bitterroot Coalition had been working on the size-cap proposal since 2004. "In January of this year, the Bitterroot Good Neighbor Coalition wrote up a proposal for a retail size cap of 60,000 square feet," he told BTW last week, prior to the public hearing. "We plopped that right on the desk of the County Planner, the head of the Planning Department for Hamilton.... The Ravalli County commissioners told [the Planner] to make it the number-one priority."

As residents filed into the gym, at first, "everyone was trying to size up the crowd" to see whether they were in favor of Wal-Mart or the size cap, Lawrence reported. In an e-mail sent to BTW the day after the hearing, he wrote: "The telling moment came when the County Commissioners called for a simple show of hands, first from those in favor of the 60,000-square-foot size cap and design standards, and when the overwhelming nature of the majority sank in a murmur, then laughter, shouts, cheers, and applause broke out spontaneously."

Lawrence noted that the most significant moment in the hearing came during the public testimony when his wife, Jean Matthews, stepped to the podium. He explained, "Jean chose to take the Big Yellow Hat [from the Book Sense/Houghton Mifflin Curious George promotion] with her, stepped up to the microphone, donned the hat and, calling it her 'size cap,' asked, 'How big is too big?' She ended by noting that she thought that, in our scenic valley, 'our natural beauty would be enhanced by something smaller.'"

Following hours of public testimony, the commissioners voted 3 - 0 to implement the Interim Zoning Regulations. "I can't tell you how beautiful it was!" said Lawrence, who noted that the commissioners are now beginning to work on implementing a permanent regulation. "We'll be watching that closely," he said.

Even with the regulation, it is still uncertain whether Wal-Mart will be able to open its store in Hamilton. The retail giant contends it "had its application in before the vote," said Lawrence. "I believe the county attorney is contesting that -- that [Wal-Mart is] not grandfathered in.... [The attorney] plans to defend this aggressively." --David Grogan