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When it comes to tweaking Goodland’s zoning, the Board of County Commissioners have opted for a hands-off policy.

“I’m not going to get in the middle of this,” said Commissioner Fred Coyle.

In a 5-0 decision today, commissioners decided not to proceed with a proposed amendment to the small fishing village’s zoning overlay— a distinct set of rules for a community above and beyond the county’s ordinances.

“It’s done,” Commissioner Tom Henning said prior to the vote.

A group of Goodland residents had been pushing forward with the effort to amend the fishing village’s overlay to stop the creation of any more mega-homes, in spite of a decision by the town’s overlay committee to postpone taking any action until July.

The rush to close a loophole in the zoning with the county may have doomed any future help from commissioners on development issues in the village.

Not everyone in Goodland supported changes to zoning, and Commissioner Donna Fiala, whose district includes Goodland and who supported the overlay amendment, warned them today. She said if they regretted their decision later to oppose amending their zoning not to look to the commission for help.

“Don’t ever come back to us and say why did you let this (mega-development) happen to us,” Fiala said.

But not all Goodlanders were onboard with the action by the village’s two civic groups, the Goodland Civic Association and the Goodland Preservation Board, that submitted the land development code amendment application March 15 to the county; a total 16 of them showed up at today’s meeting with their attorney, Clay Brooker.

“They don’t represent me,” said 20-year resident Russ Holden, referring to the two associations, in a recent interview before today’s meeting.

Commissioners were also concerned that the survey conducted by the County Attorney’s office did not “decisively” show if residents even wanted to amend the village’s overlay.

Of the 352 surveys that were mailed, a total of 222 were returned to the County Attorney’s Office.

The vote was split in the majority of the five questions including whether there should be a standard 15 percent setback for combined lots, whether new construction should be limited to 3,500 square feet under air and if there was the necessity to create a Goodland Advisory Board.

“I feel sorry for where Commissioner Fiala is,” said Commissioner Frank Halas, citing the similarities between certain Goodlanders’ efforts and those of a group of Naples Park residents.

“One particular individual led the charge and made it sound like the whole community was in favor of this person’s particular idea. “All of a sudden turned into an uprising.”

Halas likened the ensuing battle to the Hatfield and McCoy feud, and said commissioners realized too late that those calling for the change were “just a small fraction of people.”

And commissioners agreed that in this case the same problem was shaping up.

“It was not an outcry from the community,” Halas said.

“It has to be a very decisive, clear direction from the people of that community. Then we may have an understanding of where we’re going on this.”