'Mr. Potato Head' zoning denied for Baker business park

Concerns about blending the zoning for a planned business park on Baker Avenue has prompted Whitefish City Council to unanimously deny a zone change for the property.

The owner of The Mix at Whitefish requested a zone change to add two condo units, and to amend conditions to include music schools, trade schools and hotels as allowed uses.

Elaine Edwards, on behalf of 1840 Baker LLC, is seeking the change along with a conditional use permit to construct multiple buildings on the property, which is located near the intersection of Baker and Commerce Street.

Councilor Andy Feury said he would not have approved the initial zoning for the property that was created in 2013.

“I think blending of zoning is picking what you want and don’t want — I don’t think that’s a good way to zone your community,” he said. “If you try to mix and match, you make Mr. Potato Head out of our zoning, and that’s a huge problem.”

Mayre Flowers, with Citizens for a Better Flathead, took issue with the use of conditional zoning on the property, claiming it to be an illegal abuse and application of the city’s conditional zoning provisions.

She said it is an illegal “blending” of two zones. In addition, she said, the conditional zoning is not “more restrictive” than the single underlying zone, which is required for conditional zoning.

“If this application of conditional zoning is allowed to stand and be implemented by the city, there is no end to the Pandora’s Box of possible applications of the conditional zoning using blended zones that might be requested, and as well potentially litigated,” she said. “To allow for this cherry picking of desired land uses would serve to make a farce of the city’s zoning code and the fair and predictable zoning that city residents expect of the city.”

The existing zoning district includes the Montana Shirt Company building, as well as industrial condo units. The owner was originally approved to use the conditional zoning provision to rezone the property to a more restrictive mixed-use hybrid of the industrial and business uses, according to Planning Director Dave Taylor.

“Conditional use zoning allows an applicant to rezone a property into a blended zone that offers restrictions on development requirements and future uses in exchange for the inclusion of some uses allowed in an adjacent zone,” Taylor explained.

Also during public comment, Rhonda Fitzgerald told council the area on south Baker Avenue is a place where small manufacturing businesses can thrive and that should be preserved.

“The vision for the community needs to provide an opportunity for small manufacturing,” she said. “They need a place where they can operate. We have less and less affordable land for industrial use.”

Councilor Frank Sweeney agreed, saying he didn’t want to lose the potential for industrial use of the property.

“There are other tools to create the appropriate zoning,” he said. “In this site, with these types of uses, this doesn’t make any sense to me. I can’t see how putting a hotel, schools and restaurant up against industrial makes any sense. We’d also lose some portion of the industrial property we have there.”

Mayor John Muhlfeld asked for further review of the issue in light of public comments made. He suggested council delay a decision until its December meeting, but planning code requires a decision within 90 days after the application is submitted, and that deadline would have expired prior to the December meeting.

“I think enough issues have been raised that it warrants review by not only council, but the city attorney and the planning director,” he said.

Under its current conditional zoning, the property is allowed to house a number of business and light industrial uses, including antique stores, automobile or boats sales or repair, furniture or floor covering stores, grocery stores, laundry services, machinery and equipment sales or repair, medical clinics, restaurants, light industrial, office space, parcel delivery or tire sales, and microbreweries.

Council ultimately chose to deny the zone change request. However, in a separate but related issue, Council did delay a decision until Dec. 7 for a conditional use permit for the property.

The owner is requesting approval of a CUP for the construction of four buildings on the property to house a variety of commercial and industrial uses. The developer agreed to allow for the extension.

The planning staff’s report on the CUP including information pertaining to the rezone request and proposal for a hotel, music school and cooking school on the property. Council decided it would need an updated staff report before it could make a decision.

“The CUP staff report is based on a zone change that didn’t happen,” Feury said.