Council to consider allowing annexation south of Montana 40

After a request by a few property owners, the City of Whitefish plans to examine whether it would allow for annexation of land south of Montana 40.

The city has long followed a historical precedent set by City Councils that it would be unwilling to annex or provide utility services south beyond the intersection of Montana 40 and U.S. Highway 93. However, seemingly disappointed in the appearance of one business near that intersection and after being contacted by other property owners that would like to be annexed into the city, Council during a work session recently agreed to revisit the issue.

Councilor Frank Sweeney said while community members have expressed the desire for the entrance to the city to be green space that’s not the reality of the situation, but the city could guide how the property is developed if it’s part of the city limits.

“Without annexation we will never have any control of what’s happening there,” Sweeney said. “It’s privately owned and we don’t have the financial ability to purchase it.”

Councilor Andy Feury said Whitefish Marine near the intersection is “truly the least attractive business in the valley” and if Whitefish wants to protect the south entrance to town it needs to bring those properties into the city.

“We can’t rely on the county to do anything to protect it,” he said.

In 2018, during an update of the city’s extension of service plan and urban growth boundary map the idea of adding the potential of extending services south to Blanchard Lake Road quickly drew criticism from folks who said it would encourage growth to the south of the city. State law requires that cities have an urban growth boundary plan showing how they will provide services to areas that may one day be annexed.

Planning Director David Taylor said the city has received several inquiries about the potential annexation and extension of city services in the area south of Montana 40 just outside the current city limits.

“Our policy right now is to not extend services and in order to do that we have to update the extension of services plan,” he said. “Right now we’re looking at a policy decision for Council if they’re willing to look at extending services south and annexing properties or do we want to maintain our status quo, which is sort of a passive approach and allow things to develop under the county’s jurisdiction.”

Taylor said allowing annexation would give the city more control over the gateway to the community and mitigate impactful uses, and providing city sewer would be positive from an environmental perspective.

A change to amend the urban growth boundary would have to be approved by Council following a public hearing. Subsequently, any request for annexation of property and zone changes would also have to be approved by Council.

Eric Payne and Dean Grommett, who together own a total of about 11 acres on the northwest side of the intersection, approached the city about the potential for annexation.

Payne told Council that it’s undecided how his property will be developed.

“We purchased the property about 18 months ago,” he said. “We’re looking for a legacy-type project and we look at it as the entrance to Whitefish. We’re flexible about what it will be used for, and want to work with the city.”

In a letter to the city, Kirk Demetrops with MidCity Real Estate Partners, says his firm has the roughly 10 acres at the southeast corner of the intersection under contract to purchase and is interested in annexation.

Flathead County in 2018 adopted a highway overlay south of Montana 40 with several additional restrictions that better mirrors Whitefish zoning.

However, Taylor notes, based upon developments that have occurred it appears that the county’s ability to actually enforce those zoning provisions has not been ideal.

Taylor says the city has a couple of options — leave things as they are and hope the county does a better job of enforcing their zoning and nothing egregious gets developed or it can be more proactive and allow annexation and providing services thus allowing the city to have more control over what develops.

“If people want to annex south of 40, we would look at some type of developer agreement or transitional zoning or conditional zoning to work with the developer to have more control over what would happen there,” Taylor said.

Public Works Director Craig Workman said that the city does have available capacity to expand sewer and water services and that developers would pay for extending services south of Montana 40. Any road, landscaping or lighting improvements as part of the development would also be the responsibility of the property owner, he noted.

The city is in the process of creating a corridor plan for Highway 93 South. The committee working on the plan is in favor of the city having more control over development at the entrance to Whitefish, but has decided not to take a position on the issue saying it would be best as a policy decision from Council.

That plan is expected to go before the Planning Board and then Council for its consideration later this spring.