Plan looks at future of Wisconsin Avenue corridor

Wisconsin Avenue is a mix of residential and commercial properties along the route that heads north from downtown Whitefish.

The city of Whitefish is trying to determine the vision for the area that will guide it as it grows over the next 20 years. A corridor plan for the area is currently being developed with a draft plan expected next spring.

“A corridor plan looks at what is facing a corridor and creates a vision for the corridor,” said Kate McMahon, lead planing consultant with Applied Communications, “The plan will look at the general objectives for the corridor and also give specific recommendations.”

Applied Communication of Whitefish is developing the plan, in conjunction with Robert Peccia and Associates, GSBS Richman Consulting, the Wisconsin Avenue steering committee, and the city planning office. The city’s growth policy, in 2007, called for developing corridor plans for the major transportation corridors in the city.

The corridor boundary is from the Edgewood Drive and Wisconsin Avenue intersection north of the viaduct down to the Houston Drive and Big Mountain Road intersection. It also includes some undeveloped tracts that could be accessed from Wisconsin Avenue when developed.

The city hosted an open house recently to get community input for the plan. The plan will look at how the corridor should develop, including appropriate future land uses, motorized and non-motorized transportation, infrastructure, economic performance, and potential improvements.

Participants looked at photographs taken along the corridor of homes, businesses, signs and open land, and were asked to mark what they liked and didn’t. They were also given the chance to make comments about the existing land uses and zoning in the corridor.

One comment said the commercial development along Wisconsin Avenue should be free of big box stores. Several comments called for improvements to the transportation system, including adding a middle turn lane to the street and adding sidewalks along the street. One comment asked for traffic control measures at Big Mountain Road.

A few left comments saying the area should be used for affordable workforce housing, but not vacation rentals.

While the properties along the corridor are already zoned, McMahon noted, that doesn’t mean that zoning can’t change in the future and the plan will guide that decision.

“There might be a vacant piece of property that the plan says how it should be developed,” she said. “There might be a property that is zoned for multi-family, but actually has a single-family home now.”

On display at the open house was a drawing from the city’s transportation plan that suggests how the street might be developed in the future. The design shows a widened Wisconsin Avenue with a turn lane and sidewalks along both sides with landscaping.

Ryan Mitchell, with Robert Peccia and Associates, explained that the street design could become part of the corridor plan. Some of that design could be impacted by whether residential or commercial development occurs along the corridor.

“We want people to think about the land uses and that means all the infrastructure including the bike and pedestrian routes,” Mitchell said. “This is about the long range planning — the corridor plan is about the future development.”

A draft corridor plan is expected in the spring. It would then be reviewed by the city Planning Board before going to the City Council for possible adoption as an amendment to the city’s growth policy.

“We’re in the fact finding stage right now,” McMahon said. “We’re getting input from the community so the steering committee can make its recommendation.”

Comments are also being accepted on the city’s website, at http://www.cityofwhitefish.org/planning-and-building/planning-and-zoning.php. For more information, call the planning department at 863-2416.