Media Efforts
An Urgent Call to Engage All Good Citizens of the Bitterroot Valley
Master Draft - September 17, 2006
The Montana Realtor’s Association has important information that you need to know.
Over the next ten years, a minimum of 1.9 million people will be moving to the Northwest, due to effective, nationwide marketing. How many of those millions do you suppose will be setting their sites on western Montana and the Bitterroot Valley? The developers know the answer to this question. The answer is: enough of them to produce billions of dollars in profit for their own industry and large numbers of building contractors.
Are the people of this valley really prepared for the tidal wave of high-density development that is about to overwhelm us, largely within the next few years, that will forever destroy the enviable lifestyle that we now enjoy, a lifestyle that we take for granted everyday? Look around you; the developers’ plans are already underway. This level of development will exceed your current expectations, dramatically. Your life is about to change, forever!
IT IS TIME FOR ALL GOOD CITIZENS OF THE BITTERROOT VALLEY TO DROP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND ENGAGE THE FIGHT FOR THE LIFE THAT YOU NOW LIVE!
WHETHER YOU ARE REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT, BUSINESS OWNER OR GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE, FARMER OR RANCHER, SMALL-TOWN HOME BUILDER, OR EVEN A REALTOR WITH A CONSCIENCE, RICH OR POOR, THIS NO LONGER MATTERS.
IF YOU LOVE THIS VALLEY, WE MUST ALL SET ASIDE OUR DIFFERENCES AND UNITE FOR A COMMON OBJECTIVE. IF YOU CARE LITTLE FOR THIS VALLEY, THEN STEP ASIDE; WE WILL FIGHT FOR YOU ANYWAY. OUR OPPONENTS ARE FORMIDABLE AND HAVE UNLIMITED RESOURCES.
WE CAN NO LONGER SIT ON THE SIDELINES IF WE EXPECT TO ADEQUATELY PROTECT OUR HOMES AND OUR FAMILIES.
On Monday, September 12, 2006 at 4 pm, the Board of Realtors and Home –Builders Association filed suit to remove an interim zoning requirement from the November election ballot, which has already been approved for vote after the efforts of thousands of valley residents in a successful petition drive. The petition requirement sets temporary limits (1 house per 2acres) on house construction, until which time some provisions, with your signature on them, are in place. The large-scale developments that you are seeing contain several houses per-acre. This petition is the only current obstacle in the way of these massive developments moving on this valley, right now. You have not even received the opportunity to vote on this critically important issue. The Board of Realtors has expensive, legal resources available to them for the lawsuit. It is crucial that their efforts be defeated.
Are you aware that your own County Commissioners are promoting this large-scale development in a very assertive way? Are you aware that all of the belabored public meetings on this monumental issue are nothing more than window-dressing, which your elected leaders see as a hindrance to meeting this political, self-serving objective? These same officials are growing progressively weary of the resistant comments of hundreds trying to protect their homes and rural lifestyle. It is now time to act.
Are you aware that the Commissioners continue to “stack the deck”
against you by assigning real estate interests to the local planning efforts?
Go to some meetings, ask questions of the Commissioners; you will see
for yourself.
Are you aware that the County Commissioners are using your Federal, State
and County taxes to actually subsidize this destructive development, even
though the developers are likely to make enormous profits without the
subsidies? Are you aware, in the absence of proper impact fees, with a
national average of $14,700 per building lot, and Ravalli County’s
current rate of $0, that you and your children are being shackled with
a huge tax liability that may burden you and them for decades to come?
All of this, while you are being told that Ravalli County is broke and
unable to even absorb the cost of reorganizing the Commissioners office
and local government, when our critical services, such as the Sheriff’s
Department, are being stretched to the breaking point.
If this is all shocking to you, it is meant to be. It is the truth. You are the recipient of extreme, greedy “mind-speak” that reinterprets the Constitution for personal gain. Your life and that of your children are at risk, at risk from choking traffic jams, over- regulation in an urban environment, increased illegal drug trafficking, pollution, loss of personal freedom, drive-by shootings and other forms of increased violence, and a myriad of other negative side effects of runaway development. It is already happening!
The hotly debated issues of affordable housing and sprawl are nothing but “red-herrings”, a deceitful attempt to convince good people that there is a noble motive behind the pillage of this precious creation called the Bitterroot Valley. Do not believe it. Home prices are already out of the reach of average Bitterrooters and it is too late for most of us. These developments will do nothing to change that. Learn to enjoy what you have; it is more precious than you may think. The developers are not going to put a price-cap on their houses. They will invite people from all parts of the country to live here and then let the market determine the prices. They are going to build as many houses as they can, as cheaply as possible, destroying the natural beauty that they just sold, and then leaving us with a huge tax burden.
Just follow the money trail. It will lead you to the truth. It will lead you to the motives of your own elected officials.
If passed in the November elections, I-154 will remove the right to determine our own future in this valley and pass it straight to private developers. This devious attempt to prey on your fears of excessive government is being driven by New York real estate tycoon Howard Rich and his front organizations, such as Americans for Limited Government, who view the western landscape as just another source of income, ripe for the taking. Fortunately, it has been recently removed from the November ballot due to fraud and other irregularities. The proponents are appealing to the Supreme Court. These developers, as well as your Commissioners, believe that the “market” will make the best decisions for you, even if the market wants to move a half a million people here, which is a very real possibility! We know this; we are now connected on a national level and are being forewarned. The Bitterroot Valley is on the top of the list. Vote against I-154.
Take a moment and try to envision the urban sprawl that will exist here in 15 or 20 years, with hundreds of depreciated neighborhoods on the verge of falling into the abyss of dilapidated communities, requiring huge sums of public, financial support. Our National Forest will have been repeatedly burned into submission by arsonists and nature’s wrath. It is already happening! The smoke of this ugly future is still in your nostrils from this year’s most recent round of assaults. Within 10 years, a mere blink of the evolutionary eye, the successful plunder of the Bitterroot Valley will have then been completed.
Say good-bye to many of your friends, for you may seldom see them in the future; they will be lost in the sea of humanity that will soon be here, or they will move away, themselves. But where will they go? This is exactly the question at hand. Every pristine valley in the Northwest is under assault, right now. Montana represents the last vestiges of livable, rural habitat in the lower forty-eight states.
Isn’t that what you are now escaping by living here? Is this not the very reason why people are fleeing the sewers of urban, moral decay, to the final refuges of human dignity left in the world?
Now, try to envision the developers and your elected officials living their golden years with financial security and residing in some gated community or other protected environment. They will be nowhere to be found. We will not be able to hold them accountable for their successful assault on us. It is already happening! This same moral-compass has been at work in our own state’s devastated community of Libby for 40 years!
We cannot afford to live in high-income, gated communities like these developers. Instead, learn to cherish your idyllic rural lifestyle, farm the land, support your neighbors if they are struggling; they will reciprocate in your time of need, develop sustainable living systems, raise your middle-class family and continue to enrich your life with this incredible gift of mother nature; it is all around you. Encourage a sense of community in your own neighborhood. Arm yourself with good books about previous battles in our nations’ history, like Aldo Leopold’s, Sand County Almanac. We are living the American Dream; do not give it away! We have already sacrificed many of nature’s gifts for the sake of economic growth. There is very little left! Our valley will prosper economically without this enormous, subsidized development.
Just because you already reside here does not mean that you are selfish or hypocritical; you are a good person; you do not have to accept this attack on your dignity. Even if you are a recent transplant, the life that you just escaped is about to catch up to you.
Missoulians, help us to preserve the beauty of nature that our valley provides to you in your frequent need to escape the hectic life that you endure, daily.
Do not listen to the cynics who insist that there is nothing that can be done to stop this outrage. There are solutions. We have great resources at our disposal. Be courageous and optimistic. Fight the good fight; this is it.
The efforts of every conservationist in our valley’s history are in great jeopardy. Do not forsake their tireless work. Come out of retirement and join this crucial effort.
You are a valiant warrior in the battle to protect your home and your family. Speak out and speak often. Vote your outrage in November. Join our numerous resistance groups, or support us financially, so that we can fight for you. The battle is on - bring your “shield” as well as your “sword” - you will need them both. You will be attacked, both publicly and privately. Honor your sacrifice so that in your old age you will know that you lived a good life, a life that meant more than just the collection of material objects. If we lose this battle, you will still win the war within yourself. Is this not exactly what your own God expects of you?
Listen to the operatic beauty of nature in your own neighborhood, enjoy the incredible gracefulness of soaring eagles and hawks over your homes, savor the smell of fresh-cut hay, and most of all, listen to the wind in your own sails, for it is yearning for you to engage the fight of your life.
Victory is imperative; defeat is unimaginable. This is the Very Best, Last Place; Heaven does not accept those with feeble conviction, or thirty pieces of silver!
NO SIGNATURES
Footnote: Many citizens will be working hard to form a non-profit organization over the next few weeks. We currently do not have legal, non-profit status, but we are working hard to get it. You can still make non-tax deductible donations by sending your check to SAVE THE BITTERROOT CONSERVATION COALITION, to a P.O Box in Hamilton yet to be determined. Or, you can record this information and wait until which time our non-profit status has been established. Our website address is: www.savethebitterroot.com. There is very little information on the website at this time; we are just beginning. By mid-October, we hope to have a formal declaration specifying our intention to act against these destructive efforts that are currently underway. We will also be pursuing public address ads that reflect our positions; please watch and listen. Please be patient and your efforts will be rewarded with our labors. We are now connected on a national level with many prior residents of this valley and with others who view the Bitterroot Valley as a national treasure. We hope to have thousands joining our fight. If necessary, we will gather the resources of our entire nation to fight this destruction of America’s treasures and the corruption of the American spirit.