City looks to clarify zoning practice

Whitefish is looking to clarify its zoning standards after the city was challenged on its use of planned unit development overlays.

The city planning department proposed an amendment to clarify the blending of uses and densities for PUDs, but the Whitefish Planning Board voted Feb. 19 to send the code change back to the planning department for more in-depth analysis.

“The whole PUD chapter is problematic,” said board member John Ellis. “It needs to be rewritten to provide clarity.”

The city was challenged on its use of PUDs this year when the Park Knoll neighborhood took exception to a proposed apartment complex on U.S. 93 South.

The developers planned to blend the zoning on the property with different densities to allow for greater flexibility in the design. They proposed to utilize a density bonus to obtain the requested number of units.

Residents in the Park Knoll subdivision to the west of the property argued the maneuver wasn’t permitted in the city zoning code, and made an appeal to the city Board of Adjustments.

The appeal was later dropped after the dispute was resolved, but the planning department said the incident “highlighted the lack of specificity regarding blending density in the code.”

According to city code, a PUD overlay gives a developer the “flexibility to respond to the environmental characteristics of a site, neighborhood character, and community housing demands.”

The developer gets increased flexibility and the city gets some community benefit such as increased critical area buffering, trails, affordable housing, infill, transportation network improvements, noted planning director Dave Taylor.

“It’s a tool the council has used for years and years,” Taylor said. “But the specifics in the code have never been laid out.”

Taylor said the code as currently written is “muddy,” which could lead to a lawsuit against the city.

“We have to be consistent,” Taylor said about avoiding future litigation.

The proposed code amendment creates a set formula to follow when blending densities.

A sentence also was added that gives council authority to deny a project that blends incompatible commercial or industrial uses into residential areas.

Don Spivey, in representing the Park Knoll neighborhood, said the amendment still had weaknesses.

“It still allows any zone to be blended with any other zone,” he said.

“We feel that zoning provides a sense of comfort for property owners, and that it’s not easily going to change.”

He suggested forming a committee to fully define the rules of a PUD.

Board member Rebecca Norton agreed that the code needs more work.

“This is a Band Aid, but we’re looking at something that could be a wound for the community,” she said.