City Council to vote on annexation for Houston Drive area

The city of Whitefish is officially moving forward with longheld plans to annex the Houston Drive area along the east shore of Whitefish Lake into city limits.

City Council in September approved a resolution which indicates its intent to annex, and will hold a public hearing and subsequent vote on the matter at its Monday, Nov. 6 meeting.

The city plans to use the wholly surrounded method of annexation, which under state law allows the city to annex property without the property owners having the right to protest or prevent the annexation when access to the properties can only be gained by crossing through the city.

The city is looking to annex 43 acres of land. If approved, it says the 49 parcels should bring in about $96,000 in additional property tax assessments.

This spring the Montana Supreme Court ruled that the city can legally annex the group of properties along the east shore of Whitefish Lake in the Houston Drive neighborhood.

Property owners, known as the Houston Lakeshore Tract Property Owners Against Annexation, filed a lawsuit in 2015 claiming the city could not use the portion of state law that allows the city to annex wholly surrounded properties to bring the neighborhood into city limits and that the city is prohibited from annexing more than one property at the same time.

The state Supreme Court sided with the city in the matter dismissing the property owners claim that the land is not wholly surrounded because it is possible to reach the properties without crossing city streets, including traveling over state and county roads and across Whitefish Lake, and that the city may annex more than one property at a time based on state law.

City Council in 2014 placed the properties along Houston Drive at the top of its priority list for possible annexation. The city attempted unsuccessfully to annex Houston Drive in 1983 and 2000.

The city in 2016 annexed 25 properties along West Lakeshore Drive and also annexed a smattering of properties surrounded by the city that totaled 83 acres of land.

The city has cited a need for annexation in a few areas adjacent to city limits as a way to protect the water quality of Whitefish Lake and also to have homeowners pay for the city services they already use.