Neighbors speak out against apartment project

Neighbors of a proposed apartment project near the new Muldown Elementary School say the project would drastically alter the character of their neighborhood.

About 10 people spoke to the Whitefish Planning Board Thursday night, after some 50 letters and emails were previously submitted to the city, outlining concerns around the project that proposes to construct two buildings with 18 units each on East Seventh Street and East Eighth Street.

After the public hearing, the Whitefish Planning Board failed to make a recommendation on the housing project following two votes.

Residents say the project will increase traffic in an already congested area near a number of schools and daycares, impact their quality of life in their own homes and negatively influence property values.

In speaking to the board, Tony Veseth said he wants to see Whitefish stay “gritty.”

“I understand that growth and change will happen,” he said. “What I am here to do is try to convince you that the people in this town and this neighborhood deserve thoughtful growth and change.”

Central Ave WF is requesting a conditional use permit to construct the apartment buildings on two lots. The buildings would be two-stories in height and would contain six two-bedroom units, four one-bedroom units and eight studio units in each building. Access to the buildings would be from both Seventh and Eighth streets.

Brian Joos says the apartment project would impact not only his property value, but his quality of life at his home. He pointed out that saying this project is similar to other multi-family housing in the neighborhood is inaccurate.

“This is pretty wildly out of character for what’s there,” he said.

Amanda Holiday said one of her primary concerns is the entrance to the apartments on Eighth Street would be right near the Whitefish Community School preschool.

“The entrance is literately feet from where people are dropping off toddlers,” she said. “I cross Seventh every day with my son and there’s no stop sign. It’s scary, we run across that street to make it.”

The planning board voted on two separate motions to recommend approval and also recommend denial for the project to City Council, but those both failed on split votes of 3-2 each time. Some board members seemed just as conflicted in making a decision as the votes.

Board member Allison Linville said she heard comments from neighbors who said the project would be detrimental to their neighborhood.

“I don’t want to approve something that has such strong public comment against,” she said. “But we have affordable housing on the table here and the consideration of this makes it challenging.”

This is the first project reviewed under the city’s Legacy Homes Program, requiring new development provide deed-restricted affordable housing at a level of 20% of the project. Seven units would be deed restricted as affordable housing including two two-bedroom, two one-bedroom and three studio apartments.

Board chair Steve Qunell, who next month will be sworn in to City Council, said he too was conflicted about the project noting that while neighbors said the project was too dense, none of them said they didn’t want housing on the site at all.

“It’s extremely difficult to approve something that so many people have written in about,” he said. “This is the first major test of where are we going to put money where our mouth is [when it comes to creating affordable housing].”

The property currently contains a single-family home and is located just west of the Church of the Nazarene and the Whitefish Christian Academy.

Aaron Wallace, with Montana Creative, is representing the developer on the project. He said the project has been designed to mitigate impacts to the neighborhood such as using landscaping and placing the parking lot in the center of the site. He also noted that while the buildings plan to use an incentive to allow for a building height up to 40 feet, plans call for a gabled roof that will be just above 35 feet.

“There’s a great need for studio apartments,” he said. “We want to provide homes for retirees, small families and workers. The proximity to the schools and the nursing home make this a great location.”

The project is also taking advantage of a incentive that allows for reduced parking, and thus still meets city requirements by providing 54 parking spaces.

The planning staff report says the apartment buildings are considered infill and the density is consistent with surrounding multi-family developments to the north and east of the property. The property is zoned WR-4 high density multi-family residential.

Planning Director Dave Taylor said prior to the Legacy Homes Program that went into effect in July, the property could have been developed with a higher density than is proposed as a use-by-right without going through the conditional use process.

“To require people to dedicate housing, we changed the threshold for when review was required because we wanted to be able to capture them into the program,” he said.

The developer in October applied for two administrative conditional use permits for the project, but the planning department felt it was necessary to bump the project up to a higher level of review by sending it before the Planning Board and City Council for a vote.

Taylor said because the developer is requesting two buildings on what would become one property, the planning department felt it required a higher level of review.

City Council is set to hold a public hearing and take final action on the project on Jan. 6, 2020.