City puts freeze on contentious development tool

Whitefish has placed a temporary moratorium on blended density zoning for planned unit development overlays, a move that suspends some forms of new development in the city for at least the next six months.

City Council on Tuesday asked for a full rewrite of the regulations, and until that can be completed, it decided a moratorium on some PUDs was necessary. PUDs that do not include blended density zoning will still be allowed to go through the city’s planning process for potential approval.

A group of residents concerned about the development tool lobbied council for the moratorium.

Linda Stock said the PUD regulations are designed to allow for flexible development, but are being abused with adverse impacts.

“I’m in favor of placing a moratorium on blended zoning until it can be thoroughly researched, evaluated and the code rewritten,” she said. “In cases where density is transferred between residential and commercial zones it’s an issue. Since there are no clear regulations on blended zoning, any decision by council would have to be considered subjective.”

Don Spivey said questions remain around whether density transfers should be applied as part of PUDs.

“A moratorium clearly seems appropriate with that work needed to be completed,” Spivey said.

The moratorium is for six months, but council could extend it for up to two years.

Councilor Andy Feury said he came to the meeting ready to vote against the moratorium, but changed his opinion.

“I was worried we may miss some opportunities,” he said. “Although if you look at the number of areas in town where it could happen, it’s probably not likely. I’m swayed by the public comment.”

A PUD overlay is designed to allow a developer flexibility to respond to environmental characteristics of a site, neighborhood character and the community housing demands. A developer gets increased flexibility and the opportunity to vary standards of the underlying zone, and the city gets some community benefit such as increased critical area buffering, trails or affordable housing.

Currently, most of the PUDs approved over multiple underlying zones have some form of density averaging to determine the maximum allowed density. Each zoning district is assigned a maximum density, so where a PUD spans multiple districts, those densities are averaged based on the area of each district.

City manager Chuck Stearns warned that a complete overhaul of the regulations could take a up to two years, pushing back other planned city projects such as a corridor plan for Wisconsin Avenue.

“This is very time consuming and complex,” he said.

Planning director Dave Taylor was more optimistic, saying a rewrite could be completed in six months.

“It depends on how contentious this is — it could drag out longer,” Taylor cautioned.

Councilor Frank Sweeney suggested narrowing the scope of the moratorium to only PUDs that include density transfers between residential and commercial zoning. He noted that the PUDs that blend density only between residential or only between commercial zones could then still be allowed to move forward.

“I would like to believe we could get this done in six months,” he said. “A moratorium on blended zoning for longer than six months is counter productive to our growth.”

Needing a majority of the council — four votes in favor — to pass, a motion to limit the scope of the moratorium failed on a 3-2 vote. Councilors Jen Frandsen and Richard Hildner voted in opposition, while Pam Barberis was absent from the meeting.

The vote to approve the full moratorium on blended density zoning PUDs was unanimous.

Council earlier this month rejected an amendment to the PUD regulations that was expected to clarify how the density is calculated when the PUD overlay spans multiple underlying zoning districts.

However, a number of residents complained saying the regulations unfairly favor developers looking to create housing subdivisions, prompting council to order a rewrite of the regulations.  

Council also authorized creating an ad hoc committee, which will study the regulations and bring recommendations for the update to the Planning Board and City Council.

Taylor said he expects the committee to meet weekly with a goal of returning with recommendations by June. Issues to be addressed include density averaging for PUDs, more specific criteria and definitions for public benefit, addressing affordable housing types, greater predictability for adjacent neighborhoods, incentives for cluster developments and open space, and separating commercial and residential PUDs by zoning.