Project will create 'speedway'

| September 11, 2008 11:00 PM

A new city is about to rise on the hill. While your eyes were blinking, Whitefish approved another massive PUD for the Wisconsin strip.

But Swift Creek Cabins may be a good thing. Imagine 54 detached, short-term lodging units emerging right here from the gravel pits and trailer park across from Alpine Village Market, all made available for tourists lusting for a piece of Whitefish, all promising to fill the coffers of our local economy.

Those of us who actually live nearby, however, were never informed of this project. The city was required to notify everyone owning property within 150 feet of it, but the properties to the south and west belong to the developer himself. So except for a brief notice in the local paper, residents of the quiet neighborhoods off Dakota, Marina Crest Lane and much of LaBrie were left clueless.

We are all directly affected, though. Not only will we face construction mayhem associated with such huge projects, serious downslope drainage issues, noise from revelers in the pavilions and spas in the new "resort," but worst of all, unnecessary traffic coming down the new roadway the city insists on slicing through from Wisconsin to City Beach via Marina Crest Lane and Dakota Avenue.

Imagine the "air" vehicles can get racing down East Marina Crest Lane and Dakota Avenue to City Beach. Imagine the deer and children they can "take out" on their way. Oh, a grand day is "a-comin'."

On a serious note, I think this PUD can be a positive thing. Tourism is our main industry, and the builder has a reputation for fine work.

My purpose is not to nix the project, but to urge the city to do its job — preserve the quality and character of our neighborhoods; inform us when they are threatened; protect those of us who actually live here; keep the commercial aspect of our community where it belongs — along Wisconsin; and most of all, resist the urge to carve up another peaceful neighborhood with a very costly, totally unnecessary "speedway" to the beach.

Lea Given lives in Whitefish.