Council pushes vote on condos
The site plan for the proposed 52-unit condominium project proposed along U.S. Highway 93 West, as submitted to the City of Whitefish.
Whitefish City Council last week delayed a decision on a request to develop a large condominium project planned along U.S. Highway 93 West.
Council seemed to not get a clear answer as to when the city would receive payment for a cash-in-lieu fee of affordable housing associated with the proposed 52-unit condominium project, thus prompting its vote to push the decision. Council is now set to consider the request at its May 18 meeting.
Ronnie and Sharon Kyle are requesting a conditional use permit to construct 52 condo units in three buildings on property located directly across the highway from Whitefish Lake Golf Course. The 4.47-acre property currently contains a single-family home and some outbuildings.
Under the city’s Legacy Homes Program, the project would need to provide 20% of its units as affordable or 10.4 units. However, the developer is proposing to pay a cash-in-lieu fee of affordable housing of about $1.2 million.
In the housing mitigation plan submitted to the city, the applicant is proposing to phase payment of the fee on a per unit basis at the time of certificate of occupancy, the document that certifies that a building is complete and can be lived in.
Councilor Andy Feury said he wanted to be clear on the procedure for when the city would obtain payment.
“In the event that we hit a soft market, my concern is that we have units that are just sitting there and we don’t get the payment,” he said. “My concern is that they won’t request a certificate of occupancy until they sell the unit.”
In representing the developer Fran Quiram, with Cushing Terrell, said the buildings would receive a certificate of occupancy and then when individual condo units were completed those would also receive a certificate of occupancy.
“The goal is to finish the units out holistically,” she said. “The intent is to have the units finished and sold as soon as possible.”
Councilor Frank Sweeney expressed concern that the developer would hold back on finishing units until a sale occurred to delay payment for affordable housing.
“We’ve had units promised to us in the past and they never got built or we never got paid,” Sweeney said.
Replying to a question, City Planner Wendy Compton-Ring said the Legacy Homes Program recognizes that some locations are not ideal for affordable housing, and thus allows for a cash-in-lieu fee, such as properties like this that are zoned low-density resort residential.
“The Legacy Homes Program recognized that there are some areas that wouldn’t be conducive to affordable housing,” she said. “Areas that have a greater preponderance of resort residential, those with high homeowners association dues or distances from services — all areas where we didn’t expect to see any Legacy Homes — and that’s exactly what this project is.”
Plans for the condo project call for constructing three buildings with two containing 18 units and one containing 16 units. The buildings would contain a combination of two-, three- and four-bedroom units.
As part of the Legacy Homes Program, the developer plans to use three incentives — additional building height, density bonus and reduced parking.
The program allows for buildings to be 5-feet higher than the standard up to 40 feet.
The density of the project is 11.63 dwelling units per acre and the zoning allows for a maximum density of 10 units per acre without the bonus.
The parking standard requires 121 spaces for the project, but the applicant is using the reduced parking incentive and is only planning 112 spaces.
The entrance to the project would be off Highway 93 and includes a large landscaped round-about to slow traffic as it enters the project before accessing parking under the buildings.
The two 18-unit buildings will have subgrade parking and three floors of condos. The 16-unit building will have two floors of condos and under-the-building parking.
The buildings are planned to be centered around a central open space that contains a clubhouse with resident amenities including barbecues, hot tubs, grassy area and paved plaza spaces.
A traffic impact study for the project, found that it would generate 283 new trips per day adding to the existing streets and no mitigation is required as a result.
The property since at least 1982 has been zoned low-density resort residential, which is “intended to provide low density setting for secondary resorts” according to the city zoning code.