Ponder the significance of this statement from Mark Rey: “We still have the underlying question of does the state of Montana have adequate zoning authority, and the answer appears to be no.”  Think of who is making this statement.  Rey is an arch-conservative politically.  He’s worked as a lobbyist for timber companies that were skeptical of, and resisted, the assertion of governmental power over the use of their private property.  He has worked for an Administration philosophically sympathetic with such views.  And yet even Mark Rey concedes that Montana’s planning and zoning statutes are so weak as to leave decision-makers unable to protect the environment or preserve the public fisc. 

This is a sad state of affairs at a time when Montana’s irreplaceable natural heritage is under direct threat.  The Legislature has fallen short of its duty under the 1972 state constitution to enact statutes sufficient to protect common natural resources and each person’s inalienable right to a clean and healthful environment.  During the current legislative session, some bold lawmaker should take up the cause of modernizing the state’s planning and zoning laws. 

The first target for reform should be the statute giving Plum Creek, as a large owner of timber lands, the ability in some instances to exercise a veto power over zoning regulations enacted by a democratically elected county board (e.g., the Missoula County Board with respect to the Seeley Lake Planning Area). This statute effectively gives a huge for-profit business the ability to resist environmental regulation it does not happen to like.  The wishes of the rest of us don’t matter.  Nor do the environmental consequences of such a veto.  This kind of situation is unthinkable in most states.

If the Legislature doesn’t act, the question of whether this statute is lawful will inevitably end up in court.  There the statute seems doomed.  Rather than promote environmental values, the statute is at odds with them by allowing large landowners to resist governmental attempts at environmental protection in favor of the pursuit of private profit. The statute is also patently undemocratic in that it creates a preferred class of citizens or business entities who can resist the exercise of governmental power and authority in a way that no ordinary citizen can. Further, the statute delegates what amounts to unbridled legislative power to self-interested private parties. Similar statutes in other states have been struck down by courts in other states.

Plum Creek is not going away.  In defense of Montana’s natural heritage, the Legislature should take immediate action to create a level playing field in which the voices of citizens count as much as the preferences of corporations (or, here, a “real estate trust”).

How did Plum Crook get this land anyway?  These were railroad grant lands, to revert back to the government after the railroad was completed.  How were they able to steal all of this land???