Planning board supports zone change for Kalispell Ave.

Roughly a half dozen residents of Kalispell Avenue told the Whitefish Planning Board Thursday evening that changing the zoning on their street is the best way to preserve the neighborhood.

A group of neighbors are working together in a request to rezone three blocks on the west side of the street between East Third Street and East Sixth Street. They would like the zoning to be changed from WR-4 high density multi-family housing to WR-2 two-family residential.

Sarah Canepa said residents are concerned about what could be developed on the street if the zoning isn’t changed.

“Our goal is pretty simple,” she said. “We want to maintain the residential character of the neighborhood and we want the zoning to match the east side of the street and match the residential neighborhood we feel we are a part of.”

John Lacey said if the zoning isn’t changed it would likely mean a creep of uses into the neighborhood that don’t match the single-family homes that are there.

“This is consistent with everything we think about this neighborhood,” he said.

Planning Board member Toby Scott the current zoning for the street doesn’t make sense and commended the neighborhood for working to change it.

“Kudos to the neighbors for paying attention to your zoning and doing the work to get it changed,” he said.

The change would be consistent with what’s outlined in the city’s downtown master plan.

Planning Director Dave Taylor said while the city has recognized that Kalispell Avenue and some areas in the city should be rezoned to match the land-use that is occurring there, the city relies on neighborhoods to initiate that process themselves.

“It’s Council’s policy that we don’t down zone unless requested by a neighborhood,” he said.

The majority of the homeowners on the west side of Kalispell Avenue are pursuing the zoning change for the three blocks by garnering petition signatures from about 76% of the affected landowners. The zoning change requires a petition of the owners of 65% of the land area to initiate the change, under city zoning code.

Four of the 20 property owners affected did not sign the petition, the planning department notes.

Placing single-family zoning directly adjacent to commercially zoned property such as on Highway 93 typically isn’t a good idea because of the potential for conflicts, the planning department notes, but in this case the new zoning would better match the character of the rest of Kalispell Avenue that already is adjacent to the commercial development along the highway.

The request is set to go before City Council on July 19.