Board disappointed with short notice on corridor plan

Members of the Whitefish City Planning Board say that while they see the need for a plan for the U.S. Highway 93 South corridor outside the city, they are concerned with the way the city was notified that such a plan was submitted to Flathead County.

“Is there a reason you excluded the city until last month when you gave us your essentially complete plan?” City Councilor Richard Hildner said, during last week’s planning board meeting.

Dave DeGrandpre, a land use planner with Land Solutions, LLC of Charlo, submitted the plan to the city Planning Board last month seeking comments on the plan before it goes before the county Planning Board on Jan. 11.

Planning Board member Rebecca Norton echoed the concern, calling the introduction of the plan “awkward.”

“To me it sounds like what you are now is a lobbying group for individual property owners, and it’s not really a public process,” she said. “You’re giving it to us at the tail end when it’s obviously been developed without a lot of public process.”

“There’s a lot of things I love about it, but I feel like it’s a little awkward,” she added. “You want our blessing but you haven’t given the public or the city hardly any time to actually look at the impact for the long-term.”

DeGrandpre said landowners in the area have been waiting to see the area re-zoned since the city growth policy was adopted nine years ago.

“It’s been nine years that landowners have been in limbo,” he said. “We’re coming here in an open handed manner. There’s a real history of tension between the city and county on land use issues, and we’re trying to bridge that gap. Landowners are not trying to force anything — we’re trying to make something happen here.”

The plan covers a 490-acre area that extends for about 1.5 miles from Montana 40 south to North Valley Refuse on Highway 93. The plan calls for a special overlay zone with strict development standards that appear to be consistent with city zoning standards for landscaping, buffers, site plan requirements, architectural design, sign standards, parking, and dark skies lighting.

It would also change the zoning on most properties. What is currently zoned AG-20 would become SAG-5, and what is SAG-5 would become a business service district.

Homeowners in the corridor voiced their opinions on the plan during the planning board meeting.

Resident Sean Dillon said he likes what he sees in the plan but wants to constrain the corridor to only include frontage properties on Highway 93.

“I see lots of good in this plan,” he said. “I would hate to see it become more commercial.”

Karen Reeves contrasted DeGrandpre and others by saying that it was for the best that the corridor didn’t change when the city growth policy was adopted.

“It was probably a really good thing that nothing got done nine years ago because there would have been a lot of people who would’ve went down in flames with the recession that hit us,” she said.

Reeves said she appreciates a lot of the proposed plan but thinks it’s important that the city and county work together to plan for the long term.

“If we turn everything into Evergreen, where it’s insane to try to get to a business with a left-hand turn,” she said. “When does it become an hour to get to Kalispell from Whitefish because of all the stoplights?”

The Flathead County Planning Board will hold a public hearing on the plan on Jan. 11.

Flathead County Planning Director Mark Mussman said the corridor plan will likely be pushed forward to a work session following the January meeting.

The Whitefish City Council is also set to look at the plan and take comments on it at its Dec. 5 meeting.