Development tops talk on corridor plan

Concerns about a potential development on Whitefish Lake dominated the unveiling of the Wisconsin Avenue corridor plan last week.

After nine months of planning, the first draft of the plan was available for public input at an open house Aug. 23 at City Hall.

The most controversial facet of the committee’s plans have been the key development areas within the corridor. Along with the abandoned trailer park off Edgewood Drive, the northwest corner of Skyles Place and Wisconsin Avenue and the gravel pit across from Alpine Village Market, and the lodge development proposed by Joe Gregory at the Big Mountain Road intersection has been the “elephant in the room,” City Planning Director Dave Taylor explained.

“It’s one of those things where because there’s a lot of neighbors around there that heard about it, it’s kind of become a focus of the committee,” Taylor said.

Early plans for a lodge at the East Lakeshore and Big Mountain Road intersection emerged in March. The development is planned for three properties owned by Krummholz Lodge owner Joe Gregory — two lots adjacent to Big Mountain Road on the east and west sides of the road totaling almost 27 acres and an 11-acre lot south of East Lakeshore Drive.

A resort lodge would likely be located in the southern property, which includes 700 feet of lake frontage on Whitefish Lake, while along Big Mountain Road, resort residential properties would be on the west property and ancillary or administrative buildings to the east. Though Gregory has talked about the potential for a project no formal plans for development have been filed.

Taylor said he’s not sure how the committee ultimately will handle the proposed project in the corridor plan.

“There’s some committee members who I think felt like having only one property on the lake that has any commercial use, which is the Lodge at Whitefish Lake — they’d like to see other opportunities for other types of commercial uses or the ability for the public to at least access the lake on another site. Other people are obviously concerned about the change from the residential to some kind of commercial use,” Taylor said.

Residents living around the proposed development site gathered in the meeting room adjacent to the City Council Chambers to share their concerns.

Miles Gordon, an East Lakeshore Drive resident, said he’s wary of the promises being made regarding the development.

“He wants to develop, change the character of everything from Big Mountain Road on,” Gordon said. “You look at this here, they want to protect the character, water, et cetera. He wants to build another marina. He says it’ll be pristine. Very few marinas are pristine, and who knows what will happen in five years when he’s out of here?”

Alongside him, his wife Jan said if water quality is a concern for the committee, a development is a step backwards. Furthermore, she doesn’t like the relaxed regulations the site has because of its status as a county property.

“We’re talking about water quality and this is the exact opposite of what we’re allowed to do because we’re in the city of Whitefish. We can’t move our docks. He is just a few hundred yards north of us and he’s in the county,” she said.

Committee chair Rebecca Norton said it’s encouraging to see concerned residents attending public meetings speaking out. The key, she said, is continued involvement.

“It’s wonderful that they care enough about our community to get involved. The best thing they can do is to show up to all the future meetings and educate themselves about land use issues,” she said. “If you want to make a change, you have to show up and be vocal about what’s legally harmful to your community versus someone’s entitled use of property.”

Aside from key development areas, the plan also looks at the future for the corridor’s environment and water quality, neighborhoods, transportation and infrastructure, and economic performance.

Norton said putting a comprehensive plan together is difficult for an area of the city that plays many different roles.

“It’s a complex area because we have one main road, residential areas on both sides but we need to expand from the downtown area and take some of the pressure off downtown. But then we have to preserve the connectivity into the mountain area,” she said.

Norton said her main concern heading into the committee was water quality.

The plan’s goals for water quality are to “protect water quality, stream stability, and natural processes that preserve aquatic habitat and wildlife habitat” and “preserve the natural landscape, scenic views and forested character of the corridor.”

However, Norton said she’d like to see more.

“I think it needs to be fleshed out a bit more. I want to know that what we’re proposing is going to work. With the new marina being proposed, we don’t know how that will affect the water quality of the lake,” she said.

Taylor pointed to transportation and infrastructure as an increasingly important part of the corridor’s future.

Wisconsin Avenue is a secondary state highway under the authority of the Montana Department of Transportation.

As the city continues to grow, the growth of traffic and further developments along Wisconsin Avenue will pose new challenges, he said. Traffic in the corridor is increasing at an annual growth rate of 3.9 percent, according to the plan.

“Wisconsin Avenue is something that’s going to grow as the state develops it — right now it’s a bottleneck, it’s two lanes, some day it will probably be a four lane road, so one of the things [the state] wants to do is make sure there’s wide enough setbacks for when people do build in the future.”

The corridor plan sets out 14 action items to help implement the ideas and strategies formed in the steering committee. These include:

- Review land use regulations for future right of way acquisitions

- Evaluate options for road widening and improvements along Wisconsin Avenue

- Identify options to expand transit and park-n-ride lots

- Identify options for calming traffic on Colorado Avenue

- Study storm water management issues at Viking Creek; adoption tree preservation guidelines

- Study the feasibility of emergency services facilities near Big Mountain Road

- Amend the architectural review standards to include new key development areas

- Form a Wisconsin Avenue business group

- Develop gateway treatment designs

- Implement recommendations from the bicycle-pedestrian master plan

- Coordinate with development code revisions to include the plan’s policies

- Analyze the best use for a city-owned lot north of Reservoir Road

- Revise zoning to accommodate a mix of uses for the neighborhood transition.

Norton said the committee’s main concern is keeping the Wisconsin Avenue area as a place where residents still want to live.

“We’re hoping to establish something where people can still live in the corridor and have a really great quality of life, not be too disturbed by commercial use along the road and still have access to downtown and the lake and the ski mountain easily,” she said.

The committee will meet again in September before forwarding the plan onto the city Planning Board.

To view the draft proposal or to leave comments, visit http://www.cityofwhitefish.org/planning-and-building/long-range-plans.php.