Council set to decide on major housing project

Whitefish City Council is expected to decide Tuesday on a plan to developer 234 apartments at the former North Valley Hospital site.

The project, known as the Riverbank Residences, is being requested to construct seven buildings on the 11.8-acre property.

Council held a public hearing on the project on Jan. 7, but following a packed agenda didn’t begin discussions until around 11 p.m. so voted to delay a decision on the matter to its Jan. 22 meeting. Council did close the public hearing on the request.

“This project warrants thorough deliberation,” Mayor John Muhlfeld said. “I suggest we postpone this.”

The project, if approved, would allow for seven buildings to house 90 studio apartments, 90 one-bedroom units and 54 two-bedroom units at the site across the U.S. Highway 93 from Safeway.

As part of the project, Riverbank Properties plans to provide deed-restricted affordable housing for 47 of the 234 units. The apartments will be designated for those with incomes of 60 to 100 percent of the adjusted area median income, and would become restricted and managed by the Whitefish Housing Authority.

“We need housing here,” said Will MacDonald, developer of the project. “This would provide housing, but also a number of benefits to the community.”

MacDonald said not only will 47 units be set aside for the housing authority, but also the one-bedroom and studio apartments are planned to be set at a rate to serve those at 80 percent of area median income to provide additional workforce housing.

However, during public comment some questioned whether the development includes the right type of housing and if it’s the best location for such housing.

Mayre Flowers asked if the project would really be meeting the housing needs of the community, and noted that should be asked of all similar development plans.

“We really need to have a more comprehensive look at where we’re at,” she said. “While the applicant is able to increase density by providing deed-restricted affordable housing, the city is also getting non-deed-restricted apartment units that should be of concern with the flood of apartments that have been approved in the city.”

Rhonda Fitzgerald said while she supports creating affordable housing and the location of the housing, she questioned parts of the plan.

“I would be happier if it were a better project,” she said. “Seven massive buildings bigger than anything we have in Whitefish is a bit much. It would be better if we had a mix of housing types — like single-family townhouses and apartments — so it would be more like Whitefish.”

Richard Turbiak, with Citizens for a Better Flathead, said denser projects will be needed to create affordable housing, and commended the project for providing more than 30 percent of the property in open space and providing public access to the Whitefish River.

“We’re in favor of affordable housing and this is an important piece of the puzzle,” he said. “This seems to be the right place in the corridor for housing.”

Councilor Frank Sweeney raised concerns about whether trees would remain on the edges of the property and how that would impact the view from adjacent roadways.

“We put these kinds of density on this property and it’s about the ability to isolate or camouflage it,” he said. “If we eliminate trees than we lose that.”

Under city regulations, the developer is required to submit landscaping plan and a condition of the PUD says that all “existing healthy, appropriate trees must be retained” as part of that plan and to “protect, to the greatest extend possible, the existing trees and vegetation along” Highway 93 and the 15th Street extension.

Traffic concerns have also been raised from those saying the development would add more vehicles to what is already seen as a bottleneck for traffic along Columbia Avenue and 13th Street.

Riverbank Properties plans to extend Columbia Avenue from 13th Street south through the site. It also plans to extend 15th Street from the highway into the property. Both streets would be constructed to city standards.

Mark Bancale, a traffic engineer with WGM Group working on the project, said based on concerns about the impact to traffic during the school year, engineers went back and looked at the area when school was in session.

“There is significant increases in traffic volumes out there during the school year, so it was good that we went back and looked at that,” he said. “The analysis we did found that both during the summer tourism season and the school season that the site generated traffic — traffic that’s going to be generated because of this development and people living there — will have a very small impact on traffic operations at the intersection of 13th and Columbia, and the intersection of 13th and Spokane.”

Making a left turn onto the highway, he noted, can be challenging depending on the level of traffic on the highway, so by extending Columbia and 15th Street into the site it creates more than one road into the development.

“Providing people with more than one opportunity to access the street system,” he said. “It’s better to have more options than focusing all traffic at one location.”

Replying to a question from Council, Public Works Director Craig Workman said though final details haven’t been worked out for the planned street extensions the city is working to make sure that they will have room for a bike lane to assist with traffic flow.

“The final design will accommodate bike lanes,” he said.

About 3.75 acres, or 31 percent of the property, is proposed to be as common area open space including along the Whitefish River. The developer plans to construct and deed to the city a paved trail along the Whitefish River and also create more primitive walking paths along the river. Five parking spaces are proposed near the paved path to facilitate public use of the river trail.

Parking spaces in the site are proposed at a total of 321 off-street spaces in addition to on-street parking. The developer is requesting a deviation to provide fewer parking spaces than required. The total required spaces without a deviation would be 374 spaces, so the developer is requesting to provide 53 total fewer spaces than required.

The area median income for Flathead County, according to the city, for a two-person household is $48,400. This is also referred to as 100 percent area median income. The industry standard for affordable housing is that it should not be more than 30 percent of the owner or renter’s annual income.