Size Cap Fight Renewed in Montana's Ravalli County

In April, the county commissioners in Ravalli County, Montana, unanimously passed a regulation placing a size cap of 60,000 square feet on new retail outlets. The expectation was that the ordinance -- the brainchild of Russ Lawrence of Chapter One Book Store in Hamilton, Montana, and the Bitterroot Good Neighbor Coalition -- would keep a proposed Wal-Mart out of the county.

Now, it appears that the size cap ordinance is in jeopardy of being suspended.

The group Citizens for Economic Opportunity (CEO) organized a petition drive to overturn the size cap ordinance by putting it to a vote on the November ballot. According to Lawrence, under Montana law, if enough signatures have been collected (approximately 4,500 -- 15 percent of the population of Ravalli County), it would suspend the size cap until the election.

The petitions were turned into the Ravalli county clerk and recorder on Tuesday, June 12, and the president of CEO, Dallas Erickson, told BTW that they included 6,500 signatures.

However, the clerk has 30 days to verify the signatures, and Lawrence noted that he has already been in touch with the county attorney to ensure that all of the signatures are from "unincorporated areas" of the county. "Signatures collected from incorporated areas -- cities, which are self-governing -- are to be discounted," he explained.

Erickson noted that he is "confident the clerk will accept them as legitimate -- we have more than enough to cover the margin of error." He stressed that this is not about wanting Wal-Mart in Ravalli County. His group is opposed to a size cap limit because its members believe that it jeopardizes free enterprise, he said. However, he noted that CEO is in favor of design standards for new retail stores.

While it remains to be seen how many signatures the clerk accepts as valid, and whether the size cap ordinance is suspended, in an interview earlier this week, Lawrence told BTW that he was prepared for a tough battle. "CEO has the resources of Wal-Mart behind it, and that's a lot to fight," he said. "But we [the Bitterroot Good Neighbor Coalition] are re-energized and have thrown [our own] resources at it. We've taken out ads and circulated fliers ... but it's tough to ask people not to sign a petition that asks that something be put on a ballot for a vote."

Noting that the Bitterroot coalition has engaged an attorney and that it continues to organize, Lawrence said, "We're not afraid of a ballot issue. We can win a vote."

Even if the size cap is suspended, and it opens the door for Wal-Mart, there are still hurdles the mega-store has to jump before it can build. "Wal-Mart would still have to obtain waste and water discharge permits, and there's a land-use issue [for the proposed site]. It's a sensitive piece of ground that's very close to the river, with issues of high ground water," noted Lawrence.

As part of the campaign to educate the public about why they should not sign CEO's petition, Lawrence penned a guest column in the local newspaper, The Ravalli Republic.

In the op-ed, Lawrence wrote: "CEO ... is circulating a petition that, if it receives enough signatures by June 12, would suspend the recently passed Size Cap and Design Standards and put them on the November ballot.

"That's great if you're the CEO of a Big Box store, but not so great if you're a Ravalli County citizen seeking economic opportunity. If the size cap is suspended, there is nothing to prevent -- or even manage -- large-scale retail development in Ravalli County. That means they can build as big as they want, as ugly as they want, and pretty much wherever they want."

In the article, Lawrence also noted that CEO's argument regarding protecting free enterprise is misguided: "To those who trumpet the values of free enterprise and competition: you are likely to see a lot less of either of those when what we buy, where we buy it, and what we pay for it, is all decided by one big box store, rather than by a network of locally owned competitors. The big box model is to destroy competition, not foster it." --David Grogan