Montana Cities Regulate County Residents Stopped

 

27 November 2001

 

After all of the discussion about tribes not being republican in form and unconstitutional because they were taxing and regulating citizens within a specific tribes reservation borders, would you believe that on my last visit to Western Montana, I found seven legitimate city governments in Montana that were enforcing state building codes outside city limits. Those seven cities were forcing non city residents to pay their city government building permit fees, to comply with the codes they were enforcing, and to comply with the orders of the city building inspectors.  On October 19th, my brother in law told us how a Missoula City Building Inspector entered his ranch property last spring , came up to his new home (under construction) and threatened to close him down because he did not have a Missoula City building permit for that building. My brother in law ordered that inspector off the ranch and continued to finish the roof. The ranch is over ten miles from the Missoula city limits. He was told shortly after that incident that he was exempt from those regulations because his property was outside the 4.5 mile area surrounding Missoula city limits where the city imposes its building code regulations.  The following day the local Missoula newspaper carried an article titled "Doughnut Area ceased to exist May 1" and discussed the entire matter. It seems that the State Legislature received so many complaints about cities regulating and taking fees from non city folks that they passed a bill prohibiting such actions . At least now in Montana, cities have been told to leave those residents outside city limits alone, that it is none of their business, and that they do not have jurisdiction to enforce such rules and regulations. This is just one more example of " government" overstepping its authorities , a characteristic found at all levels, not just with Federal Indian Programs.