Last-minute comments delay decision on highway corridor plan

After 11th-hour public comment mostly regarding housing needs, Whitefish City Council last week chose to push back a decision on the U.S. Highway 93 South Corridor Plan.

Some commenting on the plan asked the city to include greater emphasis on multi-family housing in the corridor, while others said the focus should be on single-family neighborhoods.

Toby Scott told Council the plan should create the ability for developing needed workforce housing because it’s a critical need now.

“The Highway 93 Corridor plan is lovely for the most part, however, in consideration of the plan they didn’t consider some things like the rezoning for the purpose of high-density rental housing for our workforce,” he said. “I would encourage you to amend the plan to require any property annexed into the city be zoned as high-density residential if requested.”

But Michelle Weinberg, an attorney representing the South Whitefish Neighborhood Association, says the corridor plan would change the future land designations in certain areas to allow for higher density housing without the proper public input.

“We’re concerned about how this plan would open the door to higher-density residential development particularly on the west side of Highway 93 despite the natural constraints and resource values present in the area,” she said.

The city since 2018 has been working on developing the corridor plan. The planning process was delayed by COVID-19, but in recent months the planning board and City Council have both held work sessions on the plan prior to more recent public hearings that garnered little public comment.

The long-range plan looks at how the corridor will grow over the next 10 years in terms of land use, transportation, environment and open space. The plan includes goals, objectives and implementation items for the corridor.

The boundary for the plan extends from the edges of downtown at Sixth Street on Baker Avenue and Spokane Avenue to 2 miles south of Montana 40. It breaks the area into three different sections providing a vision for each section in the future.

City Council last week delayed a decision on a resolution of intent to consider adopting the plan moving its decision to Oct. 4.

Councilor Rebecca Norton made the motion to delay saying she needed more time to process the comments.

Noting that it was important to get more information regarding the issue of housing, Councilor Andy Feury said moving the decision a few weeks is acceptable, but the plan shouldn’t be delayed much longer than it already has.

“We’ve been working on this for 40 months,” he said. “I want us to look at those few things with housing, and we should at least pass the resolution of intent and then move forward to consider a final resolution and public hearing again to adopt this.”

“I want to move forward with this at some point,” he added. “I want to get a corridor plan passed for Highway 93 South.”

During public comment, Tom Gilfillan asked Council to include affordable housing as part of the plan. Gilfillan, who owns Whitefish Pottery, said for the first time in his 27 years as a business owner here he has been forced to closed two days per week due to a lack of staff and has been advertising all summer to hire employees.

“I can’t find employees and that has to do with affordable housing,” he said. “Anything you do to this plan should include areas that will afford more housing for workers.”

Nathan Dugan also asked Council to consider multi-family housing for the corridor.

“This area is the most palatable area for higher-density multi-family rental housing or housing for purchase,” he said.

Mayre Flowers, with Citizens for a Better Flathead, too told Council that steps should be taken with regard to the corridor plan to ensure that a focus is on creating housing for the city. However, she said the vision needs to encourage real neighborhoods and not just a “sea of cookie-cutter high-rise multi-family housing.”

“There is certainly a place and role for multi-family housing, but the emphasis should be on single-family affordable neighborhoods that the Whitefish Housing plan identifies as a top priority of Whitefish residents,” she said.

The plan divides the corridor into three distinct segments with a vision for each segment and setting goals to achieve that vision. For each segment, the plan looks at land use, transportation, and environment and open space as it applies to each.

Segment A is the northern end between East Sixth Street and the Whitefish River. It’s a mix of residential and residential structures converted into commercial uses.

The vision set in the plan is that this segment serves as a gateway to downtown Whitefish and a transition from the highway commercial uses to the residential and light commercial in the downtown area. Buildings in the section should remain small-scale and the urban tree canopy should be maintained and expanded where lacking. Public green spaces and recreation areas should be abundant, the plan says.

A large goal for the section is to replace the Whitefish River culverts with a bridge designed to serve as a transition or entrance to downtown. The bridge would also serve to allow for better pedestrian and bicycle access in the area.

Segment B extends from the Whitefish River to the city limits near Montana 40. The parcels in the section are relatively large with large commercial buildings, and some multi-family housing.

The vision for this segment is to maintain its character as a commercial corridor with a diversity of businesses.

Goals are to provide better public access to the river and increase public green space, and improve traffic flow in the area. Improving the visual character of the environment is also a goal with installing decorative street lighting and adding landscaping including street trees along sidewalks.

The plan calls for Highway 93 in this segment to include a landscaped median in the center of the highway and a protected bike lane along the highway.

Segment C extends from the city limits near Montana 40 south for about 1.5 miles to the southern edge of the city’s growth policy’s future land use map boundary. The segment has a combination of commercial uses lining the highway with residential uses behind, and agricultural uses farther south.

The goal for the segment would be to encourage Flathead County to enforce zoning and discourage land uses outside of the city limits that are inconsistent with the community’s vision for the area.

The city’s growth policy adopted in 2007 calls for the creation of corridor plans for all the major transportation corridors. Plans have been completed for Highway 93 West in 2015 and Wisconsin Avenue in 2018.

The draft plan is available on the city’s website at www.cityofwhitefish.org under the planning and building long range plans page.