Your turn - 05/04/08

The Helena City Commission has an obligation to ensure public health and safety for all of our residents and to make this a place people want to live and work.

Because Helena and the Helena valley are so tightly linked, both as a community and an environment, we have every reason to be interested in what goes on in the neighborhoods around our town.

For this reason, the city commission commends the county commission for adopting interim zoning to address the public health and water quality issues associated with on-site septic waste disposal. Both are important to preserve the environment and quality of life for everybody in the Helena area.

The city and county work jointly on many levels to solve the problems we all face. Issues such as water quality, wildland fires, law enforcement and transportation do not recognize city and county boundaries. They require we work together in cooperation.

Both the City's and the County's Growth Policy recognize the importance of the Helena Valley and provide a framework for how the two governments will coordinate efforts to ensure orderly growth. The new Helena Area Transportation Plan was a joint project to identify the major transportation issues that affect the area. The Water Quality Protection District and the City-County Board of Health serves the environmental interests of both city and county residents. These coordinated efforts are essential if we are to protect our quality of life as we grow and develop.

Zoning is one of the tools that implements the Growth Policy and guides new land development. The city has had its zoning in place for many years. The county is now working to establish zoning, so that it too can provide some certainty and predictability in growth and development patterns.

The respective commissions have agreed to develop joint standards for areas of the Helena Valley in what is becoming known as the Urban Service Area. The development community, smart growth advocates, city residents and county residents have expressed a need for this. It will take time to adopt good development standards and the decisions will not come easily. The interim zoning adopted by the county commission is a good first step in completing this important task.

Similarly, the efforts of the county commission to create a higher standard for on-site septic disposal and a septic system maintenance district help us all. Status quo policies allowing urban density development on individual wells and septic systems and lagoons have caused problems in several areas. Development densities that allow groundwater contamination are unsustainable and are unacceptable costs for our shared resources and environment.

Urban density development should be accompanied by full urban services to assure public health and safety, and environmental safeguards. Retrofitting urban development after septic systems fail and wells are contaminated is expensive, unaffordable to many homeowners without the help of taxpayer dollars from the rest of us. We should not continue past practices that burden future generations with more environmental and public health problems that require neighborhood-wide retrofits of sewer and water systems.

The city of Helena, Lewis and Clark County, Montana Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding relative to protecting and improving the quality of ground and surface waters in the Lake Helena Basin. Land use planning, and containing and curtailing proliferation of water pollution are integral to this landmark document.

We applaud the Lewis and Clark County Commission for their dedication in addressing these difficult problems today.

Submitted by the Helena City Commission:

Mayor James E. Smith

Commissioner Sandy Oitzinger

Commissioner Paul Cartwright

Commissioner Alan Peura

Commissioner Matthew Elsaesser