Board looks at changes in uses for WB-2 business zone along highway

Whitefish is looking to make changes to the uses allowed in its WB-2 business zoning district along the U.S. 93 Highway corridor.

Council directed planning staff to make the proposed changes that shift what is a permitted use and what is a conditional use for the zone.

The Whitefish Planning Board will hold a public hearing on the changes when it meets at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 20 at City Hall.

Under the change, a conditional use permit would be required for automobile, boat and RV sales, rentals, repairs and services, as well as machinery and equipment sales and rentals and repair, crematories and formula restaurants.

In a report, Planning Director Dave Taylor said the change would provide for additional opportunity to review the uses for character and aesthetic impacts, as well as impacts to municipal services and traffic.

Formula restaurants are prohibited in the WB-3 downtown business district. With the proposed changes formula restaurants would be differentiated from other restaurants requiring a CUP in the WB-3 zone.

Taylor said planning staff is not recommending making all restaurants a conditional use due to the recommendation of the Highway 93 South corridor plan committee pointing out the need for additional restaurants in the corridor to serve the expanding residential population in that area.

Personal services, such as catering or event planning, recreational guiding, or hair salons, would become a permitted use.

Taylor said the change gives more flexibility to those types of uses, which are more suited for the highway district than the downtown retail core.

Also, light manufacturing and light assembly would become an administrative conditional use.

Taylor said this would give a faster approval process while still allowing conditions of approval to mitigate impacts, noting there is a limited amount of industrial zoned property in the city and the WB-2 zone has ample land to allow for light manufacturing uses to mix with the commercial uses that are permitted.

An additional change would add research laboratories and institutions as a conditional use in the WB-2.

Taylor says this would provide the potential for a high tech research campus to be located in the zone spurring jobs and economic development.

The WB-2 business district is designed for retail sales and services that need large parking, display or storage areas.

The planning board will also take a look at proposed zoning text amendments to update the special provisions section of the multi-family development standards. Planning staff has been using the new provisions for about a year, and is suggesting several housekeeping improvements.

The proposed changes in general look to clarify the intent of the regulations, noted Taylor.

For required open space it would clarify regulations, or else provide greater flexibility such as additional exceptions for things like landscaping, tree retention and public plazas.

Changes also include incentives for smaller building massing.

In the past, the city staff has asked for a conditional use permit for apartment buildings if there is more than one building planned on a single lot. This encourages developers to do a larger single building, but multiple buildings with smaller scale and massing is preferred aesthetically, according to planning staff.

Proposed changes would clarify that requirement.

Also on the agenda:

• A request by Ron Nash of Montana Creative, on behalf of Pamela Green, for a conditional use permit to construct an accessory apartment over a new garage at 35 Columbia Ave.

• A request by Troy Core for a conditional use permit to construct an accessory apartment above an existing garage at 25 Oregon Ave.