MSU Video Highlights Regional Growth Issues

BOZEMAN -- In some western communities, it seems as if the flood gates opened and new residents poured in. Rapid growth can be overwhelming for towns unprepared for it. And growth problems in one area often ripple throughout the entire county and region.

A new videotape by the MSU Extension Service examines how people in small communities are dealing with regional growth. Featured locations include: * Jefferson County, Montana, where restrictive zoning was placed on 84,000 acres of ranch land to help avoid the development of remote, hard-to-service subdivisions,

* Ennis and Big Sky, Montana, where 25,000 acres of land in the Jack Creek drainage were sold by Plum Creek to a local group that plans to develop selected areas and make extensive use of conservation easements, * Gallatin County, Montana, which is experiencing growing pains as Bozeman's population problems spill across the city limits, and * Driggs and Victor, Idaho, which have become bedroom communities for Jackson, Wyoming. Increased services are needed for commuting residents who rarely invest time and money back into these communities.

The 18-minute videotape is called "Managing Community Growth." It can be borrowed by ordering it through your local county's Montana State University Extension Office or purchased by sending $14.95 to MSU Extension Publications, P. O. Box 172040, MSU, Bozeman, MT 59717. Credit card orders can be placed by calling 406-994-3273.

If you read this, we need to know who you are! Please send your name, city/state/country and the name of the topic you read to Tana Kappel and Carol Flaherty, MSU Communications Services, Bozeman, MT 59717. If your browser supports the "MAILTO" tag then send email to Kappel and Flaherty at carolf@montana.edu.

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