As ongoing study clears fog on local governance options, community may prioritize specific goals
By Jack Reaney SENIOR EDITOR
As dozens of community members listened to a report on Big Sky’s existing governance conditions, followed by a brief overview of implementation barriers and potential government service impacts if those conditions were to change, a few voiced their perspectives.
“What is the problem we’re trying to solve,” asked community member Mel Crichton. Six months ago, he believed that Big Sky’s best path forward is to create a new county, but new information is changing his view, he explained during a Q&A segment of a public meeting hosted by the Big Sky Governance Study on Tuesday, Jan. 28.
Crichton, who said he spent decades working in construction, sees Big Sky’s biggest problem being a lack of code enforcement. “I see developers running rampant—and they’re good people, but they see a chance to make a buck, and they’re gonna make a buck—so all we really need is more county enforcement, but we’re not getting it,” he said. “We don’t need our own organization to kick the developers and the builders in the butt… Let’s identify the problems and work on them.”
His central question echoed Linda Martinez, a part-time Big Sky resident and 38-year resident of Sedona, Arizona, who recalled serving on the steering committee to incorporate Sedona across two counties in 1988.
Since incorporation, Martinez said she’s watched Sedona unfold for more than 35 years, and problems have emerged that the municipality has not been able to solve, such as workforce housing—an area where she believes Big Sky excels due to public-private partnerships.
“I hope it’s not just about what your options are, but why,” Martinez said. “And make sure that you’re clear about what, as a community, we want to accomplish that we can’t do now.”
Both Martinez and Crichton’s comments were met with applause from some attendees.
Survey aims to identify Big Sky’s goals
The governance study team launched an in-depth community survey as part of the Jan. 28 meeting. The survey will be open online until Feb. 28.
Dylan Pipinich, a study leader and land planner for WGM Group, said the survey intends to narrow down the community’s desires and priorities, based on the study team’s findings on existing conditions and possible alternatives.
“I’m hoping that everybody puts a lot of thought into it,” Pipinich said. “I tried to stump you with some questions, and we’ll see if you really think about it and provide some detailed answers.”
Meg O’Leary, a community outreach leader for the study, said the survey is going to drive the final three scenarios—plus a review of Big Sky’s existing conditions—outlined in the final study report.
“We hope it takes you a long time, because we hope that you’re doing it in conjunction with the resources from the toolkit… I hope it takes you all afternoon and into the next morning,” O’Leary told EBS after the meeting.
Crichton offered his development-related comments in the context of the survey.
“So, when you fill out the survey, please think about what you want to do and what problem you’re trying to solve,” he said.
Since the project started, Pipinich said, “we quickly realized that Big Sky is a very complicated place.” Fiscal analyst Sarah Emmans summarized her findings about the way Big Sky funds its government services and public functions through resort tax.
“It’s really allowing for services that are above and beyond what you might typically see in an unincorporated area, just given the nature of the need here and the ability of this revenue to kind of meet some that need,” she said.
The study team spent months researching Big Sky to compile a report on existing conditions. When an attendee asked if the study team sees room for improvement in Big Sky, EcoNorthwest project manager Lee Ann Ryan said the amount of workforce housing units that Big Sky is able to construct using resort tax is “pretty incredible,” compared to large cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle, and small island towns in Washington.
“Incredibly scrappy community that gets things done efficiently,” Ryan said. “But it’s all worth looking at from a policy standpoint, of if you can do more in other ways.”
Pipinich observed that Big Sky has “a lot of highly driven, well-educated and tenacious folks” that seem to get things done.
“That is the key to the success, is you’ve got people who put your heads down and get stuff done,” he said. “… Hopefully we’ll give you some facts so you can choose the right option that’s good for you, but no matter what you choose, my guess is that you’ll be successful.”
Community member Jolene Romney offered an example of one community challenge that might not require drastic governance change such as incorporation or county-level moves—Pipinich had summarized the challenges facing any efforts for Big Sky to create its own county or adjust county lines.
“Fiscally, it looks like we’re getting a lot of taxation without representation,” Romney said. “And I’m wondering if there’s going to be some scenarios that look into how we can change that, alone, without looking into incorporation, necessarily… From what I can see, we’re not going to have either of our counties want to give up any of that money.”
Pipinich responded that it would require a legislation change. Daniel Bierschwale, executive director of the Big Sky Resort Area District, commented that such a change is already being discussed.
A special district boundary bill, LC 3227, is advancing toward Montana’s 2025 legislative session, taking “a position on services that are being taxed and representation without access to those services as a result of a geographical boundary challenge,” Bierschwale summarized.
O’Leary told EBS she found Romney’s comments intriguing, and that the study team might need to “tease the daylights out of” her question as they continue their research.
The study team will digest the results of the survey in the next month, and will continue engaging the community for guidance on Big Sky’s governance priorities.
“And now, we need to talk about picking some scenarios for the final report that are gonna resonate with everybody,” Pipinich said.
