Aggressive timeline seeks solutions in three years

A recently released plan designed to address workforce housing needs in Whitefish sets a goal of implementing eight top strategies in the next three years to provide solutions for a shortage of affordable housing in the city.

The Whitefish Strategic Housing Plan was released in draft form last month following six months of work by the affordable housing task force. The plan says the goal is to serve a wide range of needs using a number of tools.

The plan is set for its public debut before Whitefish City Council on Monday, Nov. 6.

The housing plan was developed in a partnership between the city of Whitefish, the Whitefish Chamber of Commerce and the Whitefish Housing Authority.

Whitefish Chamber Executive Director Kevin Gartland said the plan is comprehensive and takes into account many different options to narrow down into a plan that will work for Whitefish.

“It’s aggressive,” Gartland said. “It needs to be. We have a problem and we need to start dealing with it. We take this situation very seriously.”

Mayor John Muhlfeld said the plan “looks at all angles and all possible solutions, which is required when dealing with such a complex problem.”

“I believe the priorities that have been established are achievable and balanced,” Muhlfeld said. “The Council has some big challenges ahead in terms of how to plan for and implement our top priorities, but I’m confident we will get there working alongside the chamber, public and city staff.”

The plan includes eight Tier 1 strategies with a goal of implementation by 2020. Initial implementation is planned for completion by the end of 2020, but many of the strategies will operate into the future, the plan notes.

Gartland said implementation of the strategies is going to come with some cost and it will require continued work from all parties involved to implement the plan.

“We hope this won’t be left on the shelf,” he said. “The chamber is committed to keeping focus and following through.”

Muhlfeld said the city is committed toward implementing the Tier 1 priories identified, and city staff has been directed to bring forward the required regulatory changes to the city planning and zoning codes as soon as possible.

“For over a decade, the City Council has ranked affordable and workforce housing as high priorities for implementation, yet other demands, right or wrong, always seemed to get in the way,” he said.

An assessment completed last year showed Whitefish needs to add almost 1,000 housing units by 2020 to make up for a current shortage of available workforce housing and plan for the future. The same assessment showed that the affordable range for the workforce is homes priced between $160,000 and $310,000 for households earning between $40,000 and $75,000 per year. A market report by Kelley Appraisal in July showed that the median home price in Whitefish this year was sitting at $334,500.

Consultants involved with the initial assessment and creation of the strategic housing plan have noted that second homeowners have driven up the cost of houses in Whitefish.

In high-cost mountain west communities, the strategic plan notes, “affordable” is often applied to housing for moderate and middle-income residents, who cannot afford home prices that are driven by second home buyers and retirees above what local wages can afford.

One of the objectives of the plan is to focus on households with annual incomes up to $40,000 for rental housing and $75,000 for homeownership. In addition, it seeks to stabilize the housing relationship of 35 percent renter and 65 percent owner so that the community’s character as influenced by “its mix of owners and renters is preserved.”

Strategies are grouped into three prioritized tiers based on a numbers of factors including public input, current and future opportunities, funding availability, capacity, potential benefits and challenges.

There are eight Tier 1 strategies — development of the city’s snow lot, inclusionary zoning, annexation policy, zoning for affordability, homebuyer assistance, voluntary assessment, resort tax changes and low income housing tax credit apartment development.

The snow lot has long been identified as a site suitable for housing in the downtown area, but emerged as a top priority through the process. The housing plan recommends over the next year creating a public-private partnership to develop the 1.64 acre snow lot where the city currently stores its plowed snow from downtown. The plan says 30 to 40 workforce housing rental units could be developed on the property.

Muhlfeld said the city’s snow lot provides the opportunity for a private-public partnership. The snow lot is located downtown, he notes, and the city is positioned to make a project a reality at the site, whether through land donation, or assisting with site improvements. The key, he said, is private partnerships.

“The city can’t shoulder the entire burden and we can’t shift the financial burden to our general taxpayers,” he said. “We need help from our friends in the development community, and the city needs to be prepared to offer a suite of incentives to generate the numbers of housing units identified in our needs assessment.”

A second item is the use of inclusionary zoning rather than the city’s current voluntary program could make it mandatory for a minimum of 20 percent to 25 percent of homes in new subdivisions to be deed restricted for long-term affordability. The plan notes that 240 acres within the city are zoned for residential and could be subdivided.

The city right now provides bonus densities to developers that elect to build up to 10 percent of the housing units in a subdivision as deed restricted, or provide cash in-lieu for affordable housing. This has only produced eight units to date in the city. The plan recommends that no density bonus would be included in the inclusionary zoning.

The plan recommends that the city’s annexation policy be changed to require that 75 percent to 80 percent of homes developed on properties annexed into the city in the future be deed restricted for occupancy by local residents. This strategy aims to reverse the trend toward more second homes relative to primary residences occupied by locals, according to the plan.

The plan suggests changes to the city’s zoning code that would allow for affordable units and encourage such development by the private sector. It notes that the city’s planning code creates barriers to affordable housing including prohibiting housing in most commercial zones, requires excessive parking for smaller residential units and generally excludes small units.

Muhlfeld said there are going to be some “hard sells to the public” as part of the plan, but that it’s already been acknowledged that the city’s voluntary program for creating affordable housing has failed.

“Anytime we talk about annexations policies, zoning for affordability, or inclusionary zoning, those opposed come out of the woodwork,” he said. “When these strategies have been discussed in the past, the first thing we consistently heard is that development will grind to a halt, and that’s not good for Whitefish, the development community, or affordable housing.”

The plan recommends follow up tasks for the city of Whitefish, the Whitefish Chamber and the Whitefish Housing Authority to implement the strategies as identified. Chief among those include creating a strategic housing plan steering committee to review and advise as strategies are develop and the recommendation that the city hire a full-time housing coordinator.

Gartland said following through with the tasks in the plan will be key, especially until a housing coordinator is brought on board.

“We have to jump on it now,” he said. “There’s a lot more involved than what’s on the 64 pages of the plan.”

On Monday, Nov. 6, Whitefish City Council will hold a work session on the housing plan from 5-7 p.m. and a public hearing on it during its regular meeting starting at 7:10 p.m. Both meetings are at City Hall.