Board recommends plan for future of Wisconsin Avenue

The Whitefish Planning Board gave a positive recommendation last week of the Wisconsin Avenue corridor plan.

The document, if approved by City Council would become an amendment to the city’s growth policy, that looks at how the corridor from downtown Whitefish north to Big Mountain Road should develop over the next two decades.

The plan examines future land uses, motorized and non-motorized transportation, infrastructure, economic performance and potential improvements for the corridor.

A steering committee of community members spent months crafting the document that is called for in the city’s 2007 growth policy to address the mix of uses occurring in the corridor.

The economic performance goals listed in the plan are to improve the overall economic performance of the corridor noting that with current zoning about 600,000 square feet of residential, resort and limited commercial development could still occur along the corridor, Still, one of the largest possible development projects in the corridor has been met with public backlash.

Glacier Ranch Holdings has previously floated the concept of a potential lodge in 10-acre lake lots near the Big Mountain Road intersection, as well as a conference center and member village on portions of the 56 acres on the north side of East Lakeshore Drive.

Though the owners of the properties requested a change for the northern properties to resort residential to accommodate his plans, the steering committee opted to leave the designation for those properties as suburban residential. They also chose to leave the future land use for the lake front properties in the plan as suburban residential.

Board member Rebecca Norton, who served on the Wisconsin Avenue corridor committee, explained the committee’s designation for the properties.

‘There was a lot of public input about that corner and in the end the project proposed for there could still go through a public process,” Norton said. “We were hoping to steer the outcome and vision for that a little bit so it included the public’s input.”

The Planning Board in its approval seemed to favor following the committee’s vision for the area. The board voted 5-1 to give a positive recommendation to the plan.

“This is something the committee worked on for a long time,” board member John Ellis said. “I don’t want to change what’s been the consensus of the steering committee. They spent a long time on it, so I feel I should follow their recommendations.”

Board Chair Steve Qunell was the sole vote against a positive recommendation noting he had concerns about the properties at Big Mountain Road. He noted that the northern properties are adjacent to other properties already designated as resort residential.

“I don’t think this community needs more resort residential, what it needs is more workforce housing,” he said. “But I also don’t like the idea of leaving the future land use there as designated as suburban residential, I think it limits what they can do even with a [planned unit development].”

The plan notes that design and planning for the entire corridor is a challenge because of the diversity that already exists along the corridor with its current mix of established single-family neighborhoods, multi-family housing, older single family homes and resort residential areas with short term rentals. The southern half of the corridor has residential and commercial uses intermixed, while the northern section is characterized with more forested lots and larger residential parcels.

In terms of water quality, which the plan notes as one of the top concerns for the corridor, recommendations include minimizing human disturbances and practices that degrade water quality.

Transportation is a major issue in the corridor as traffic counts are expected to rise alongside increased development and visitation. The plan calls for a need for a “connected, efficient, safe, accessible and attractive transportation system to accommodate all modes of travel” along with infrastructure to accommodate future growth.

City Council is set to vote on the Wisconsin Avenue corridor plan at its April 2 meeting.