Zoning changes considered for former Idaho Timber site

The Whitefish Planning Board is set to consider zoning changes for the former Idaho Timber site.

95 Karrow LLC is requesting to rezone the property from industrial to industrial transitional and neighborhood mixed-use transitional. The property, located off of Karrow Avenue, along the Whitefish River is about 14 acres in size.

The planing board will hold a public hearing on the request at its Thursday, Sept. 21 meeting at 6 p.m. at City Hall.

The property is part of the city’s Highway 93 West corridor plan adopted in 2015. The plan is designed to guide future development of the city’s west entrance from the Veterans Memorial Bridge to Mountainside Drive.

The plan calls for the rezoning of the property to the two requested zones.

City Planner Wendy Compton-Ring in her report to the planning board said the site was included as part of the corridor study that resulted in the plan as an “opportunity for redevelopment.”

“Out of the public process, the plan identified two land uses and two zoning designations for the Idaho Timber property to transition the site from heavy industrial uses to more mixed-use and adaptive, clean industries,” she notes.

The request is to rezone just under 6 acres of the property to industrial transitional. The section of the property includes a vacant building near the entrance of the site off of Karrow Avenue near a residential neighborhood.

The industrial transitional district is “intended for the gradual transition on vacant or underutilized sites that were traditionally used for heavy manufacturing to adaptive, clean industries and business incubators.”

Permitted uses in the industrial transitional zone, include light industrial facilities, professional offices, live/work units and warehouses.

The request also seeks to rezone about 8 acres of the property along the river to neighborhood mixed-use transitional, which is intended for transitional development in areas that are moving from their traditional uses and lots that primarily border either the river or industrial zone property.

The zoning is intended for high density residential, professional offices, light manufacturing, light assembly and ancillary services to provide a performance based mixed use environment with a recreational amenity, a community gateway, and adaptive use areas.

Compton-Ring said the historical use of the property was high industrial use.

“The proposed change to industrial transitional considers the former use patterns and anticipates the trend toward light industrial and residential uses,” she notes.

The planning board will forward a recommendation on the zoning change to City Council, which is set to hold a public hearing on the matter on Oct. 2.

Also on the planning board agenda for Thursday is a request by the city to rezone 12 parcels to remove an expired planned unit development overlay on the project known as Lookout Ridge and a separate request to remove the expired planned unit development overlay on the project formerly known as Coldwater Basin.

The PUD for Lookout Ridge expired in June, and the city says changes are a “housekeeping matter.” The city is looking to revert the property back to its original zoning — agricultural and low-density resort residential.

Lookout Ridge, on about 228 acres, is located along Big Mountain Road and has remained undeveloped. The original plan for the development north of Iron Horse was to include 75 lots and 131 units.

The troubled subdivision has been given several extensions after it was initially approved in 2007.

A massive landslide in 2011 scratched a 1,000 foot scar into a hillside on Lookout Ridge and raised questions about soil stability on the property. Lookout Ridge went through foreclosure in 2014 and Whitefish Credit Union subsequently secured the property title and asked the city for the most recent extension to develop the subdivision.

The property owners are now listed as McMahon Real Estate IV LP of Westlake, Texas, and Stillwater Corporation of Kalispell.

The city has also requested the removal of an expired PUD for Coldwater Basin on Big Mountain Road. The 27 acre undeveloped property is located west of Iron Horse. The 50-lot subdivision was first approved in 2007. The project expired in June 2013.

The property would now be zoned one-family limited residential district.

The owner of the property is listed as Glacier Ranch Holdings LLC, of Bristol, Tennessee.