The Flathead County commissioners on Thursday put their final stamp of approval on the Rural Whitefish Zoning District that now officially imposes county zoning in the former “doughnut” area surrounding Whitefish.

The unanimous vote closed out an eight-year legal battle between the county and city of Whitefish that included two rounds of litigation that both went to the Montana Supreme Court. A July 2014 state Supreme Court ruling ceded planning control to Flathead County, and the county then put interim county zoning in place while it worked toward permanent county zoning.

When the final protest period ended March 14, the county had received 292 public comments, but 217 of the people who commented do not live in the doughnut area. Of the affected property owners, 55 people voiced their opposition to the county zoning plan while 20 favored it, according to county Planner Erik Mack.

A total of 3,067 people live in the Rural Whitefish Zoning District.

The final zoning plan creates five new county zoning classifications.

The commissioners agreed to retain a 100-foot undisturbed setback for the city of Whitefish’s primary water source on Second Creek. Other streams in the Big Mountain resort residential zone will fall under the county’s 20-foot setback. Whitefish zoning had imposed a 200-foot setback from First, Second and Third creeks.

Commissioner Phil Mitchell, who served on the Whitefish City Council as legal wrangling over the doughnut dragged out for years, said he believes the county Planning Board did a “good job at a good speed” to get the county to this point.

“It’s been a long battle for me,” Mitchell said. “Whitefish chose not to have an interlocal agreement; they did that through referendum. When that [interlocal agreement] did not happen, it wasn’t because of the county, it was the city.”

Commissioner Pam Holmquist pointed out that 55 protests from a population of 3,067 people in the doughnut indicates “the majority of people are fine with what we’re doing.”

Holmquist also noted the late Commissioner Jim Dupont’s role in working toward common ground between the city and county.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at [email protected].