Planning board recommends zone change for Idaho Timber site

Hoping to give new life to the area, the Whitefish Planning Board on Thursday unanimously recommended approval for zoning changes for the former Idaho Timber site on Karrow Avenue.

95 Karrow LLC is requesting to rezone the property, about 14 acres in size, from industrial to industrial transitional and neighborhood mixed-use transitional.

Bruce Boody, with Bruce Boody Landscape Architect, Inc., is a consultant involved with the property. He said he and his colleagues agree with all of the board’s findings and look forward to being the first to implement the city’s Highway 93 West corridor plan, which was 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.

City Councilor Richard Hildner questioned the extent of contaminants left over on the site from the timber company’s use.

“There was some discussion right from the get go about this site, whether or not contaminants had been pushed over the bank over the years with the sawdust piles and all those things. Have you done any ground proofing?” Hildner said.

Boody said multiple assessments are underway on the land, and so far the site looks clean. However, a lot of debris and various materials have been pushed around on the site. Boody said in some spots he’s seen more than 14 feet of in-fill on the site.

“As far as contaminants, no they haven’t found anything out there. As far as disturbants — it’s extensive,” he said. “So far, it’s pretty clean, it’s just a mix of the soils that are on site and lots of wood shavings and chips. But no contaminants.”

The request includes rezoning under 6 acres of the property to industrial transitional, which 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.

Speaking during public comment, Mayre Flowers, of Citizens for a Better Flathead, asked the board to clarify the uses that are permitted in the area’s future zoning and keep those uses within what is designated for in the growth policy.

Flowers also asked staff to examine how development on the land would align with the city’s water quality protection regulations.

“One of the questions is how the water quality protection [regulations] functions as an overlay where the zoning bed is being requested tonight,” she said. “That was not reviewed in the staff report, so we would request that you would address this in your finding of facts and provide some clarification on how this overlay zone interacts with the zoning changes being requested tonight.”

Senior Planner Wendy Compton-Ring said while future uses are kept in-mind during the rezoning process, specifics for upcoming developments won’t be considered until the area is rezoned and the planning department begins receiving applications.

Board chair Steve Qunell noted there’s going to be differing opinions on what to do with the property as different ideas on development begin to surface.

What’s most important, he said, is getting the area rezoned so the city can move forward with the corridor plan.

“I get that this is a very sensitive site and has a lot of river frontage and it’s to be important to develop this area in a much better way than an old timber company that’s out there, and in a way that respects the values of our town and also provides a little nicer opening to our city coming in there,” Qunell said. “It seems to me that a zone change is the first step in all that, and we can’t really start talking about that until we get the zone change. Because if we don’t change the zone, they could build another timber company there, if they wanted. It’s not a good idea, but that could happen.”

City Council will hold a public hearing on the request during its Oct. 2 meeting at City Hall.