City seeks input on 93 South plan
Cars drive along U.S. Highway 93 South just outside the city limits south of Montana 40.
The city of Whitefish wants input on a proposed corridor plan and rezone for 490 acres of land on U.S. Highway 93 South outside of the city limits.
Landowners in the area have submitted an application for the plan and zoning overlay to Flathead County. Whitefish City Council will hold a public hearing on the plan at its Monday, Dec. 5 meeting at 7:10 p.m. at interim City Hall.
Dave DeGrandpre, a land use planner with Land Solutions, LLC, is representing property owners in the corridor. He estimates that there are about 85 land owners along the highway in the plan area that runs about 1.5 miles along Highway 93 south of the Montana 40 intersection.
“The goal is to plan for the future, while also recognizing the different issues and constraints of the area,” he previously told the Pilot.
The county Planning Board will consider the plan at its January meeting. In the meantime, the city is preparing its comments to submit to the county and is seeking public feedback on the proposed plan.
City Planning Director David Taylor has reviewed the plan.
“Unfortunately, the city of Whitefish and its residents who are highly impacted by this plan have not had a seat at the table to help steer the development of this plan, but only an opportunity to comment on the plan to the developers and the county,” Taylor said in a memo to the Whitefish Planning Board.
The plan calls for a special overlay zone with strict development standards that appear to be consistent with Whitefish zoning standards for landscaping, buffers, site plan requirements, architectural design, sign standards, parking, and dark skies lighting, according to Taylor.
The plan also calls for changing the zoning on most properties in the corridor and then the zoning overlay would place specific standards on the properties. What is currently zoned AG-20 would become SAG-5, and what is SAG-5 would for the most part become business service district, which is similar to the Whitefish business service district zoning that the county recently adopted to match similar city zoning.
Taylor said the plan calls for some needed transportation improvements, including required backage and frontage roads for commercial development, unified site development and consolidated approaches to minimize highway access points, lower highway speeds and easements for future bike trail.
Taylor also pointed out that while the area in the corridor plan is under the control of the county it is likely that someday at least parts of the corridor will be part of the city.
“Our main concerns are the lack of public feedback and involvement prior to submittal, as well as the proliferation of commercial zoning south of Highway 40,” Taylor said.
The area is part of the former planning “doughnut” outside of the city limits. A Montana Supreme Court ruling in 2014 ceded planning control of the doughnut from the city to the county following a long-running legal battle over its control.
Taylor said Whitefish and its residents should have had an opportunity to be more involved in creating the plan.
“Community buy-in is a critical element for any long-range plan to be successful,” Taylor said. “The developers should have also come to the Whitefish Planning Board and City Council to ask for input prior to submitting the plan for approval with the county. That would have allowed time to go over items of concern and make potential amendments to the plan so it would fully have Whitefish’s support.”
He said the city would like to see the process delayed by the county until more public outreach can be done and Whitefish’s concerns can be addressed.
DeGrandpre said landowners in the area have long been looking for a corridor plan that would guide future land uses and recognize what’s already happening in the corridor. He said neither the city or county were able to provide that type of planning for the area, so the landowners took it upon themselves to draft a plan to submit to the county.
Written comments can be submitted to the Whitefish City Clerk at P.O. Box 158, Whitefish, MT 59937; delivered to 1005 Baker Avenue in Whitefish, or email comments to mhowke@cityofwhitefish.org. Public comment will also be taken at Monday’s hearing.
A copy of the draft corridor plan and staff review of the proposal is available as part of the City Council packet for its Nov. 21 meeting on the city’s website at http://www.cityofwhitefish.org/mayor-and-city-council/agenda-info-2016.php