City OKs new and increased planning fees

A few fees for services provided by the Whitefish Planning and Building Department have been reduced, while a few new fees have been added.

Whitefish City Council on Nov. 18 approved reducing two fees for architectural review. Reviews of minor facade changes to commercial buildings have been reduced from $265 to $200, and a change in paint color from $265 to $75.

“We want to encourage people to improve their buildings,” planning director David Taylor stated in his staff report. “A lot of people complained about the high fee for the paint color change review. With a fee often higher than the cost of the paint, we felt the fee discouraged people from repainting their buildings.”

A new $200 fee will be levied when an applicant voluntarily postpones and agenda item to a later meeting. A $500 fee will be levied when an applicant voluntarily postpones an agenda item that requires revision and extra staff work.

“We have had several recent applicants pull their items off the agenda two or three times for major revisions,” Taylor states. “We currently have no mechanism to charge the applicant for this, yet each time it costs the city a significant amount of money and time to re-notice and revise reports.”

Council decided these fees should only be applicable at the planning board level. If an agenda item is pulled at the council level, the applicant will be required to start the entire process over, which is more costly.

“If they withdraw an item, it goes back to the beginning,” said city manager Chuck Stearns. “We don’t want people to withdraw and pay $200 if they don’t like the council line up. It’s not appropriate.

“When four council votes are required, people try to figure out whose going to be present. If they can voluntary pull an application, it’s worth $200 to wait two weeks [for a new council.]”

A short-term rental application fee of $25 also has been added to cover staff time.

The fee changes were approved 4-2 with Chris Hyatt and Phil Mitchell in opposition.