Council postpones transitional zoning on Hwy 93 indefinitely

The Whitefish City Council voted in early May to postpone indefinitely a decision on creating a new transitional business district zoning, or WB-T, for the section of Highway 93 just south of Montana 40.

The decision to postpone is familiar as council has had this zoning item on its agenda and included it in work sessions several times over the past few months. Still, council could not agree on the best course of action in its regular meeting on May 2.

The proposed transitional zone would affect the area south of U.S. Highway 93 and Montana 40 known as the ‘gateway to Whitefish’ or Section C in the city’s recently adopted Highway 93 South Corridor Plan. The plan calls for the creation of the zoning district for newly annexed properties in the area.

The zoning only affects properties that choose to annex into the city and has been a long-standing subject for the council. Since January, councilors have directed staff to remove a number of high-traffic uses from the list of approved uses for the area and add more housing.

The area is currently zoned Flathead County B4, secondary business, and this existing zone has 39 permitted uses. That number has been drastically reduced and housing options have been added to the parameters of the WB-T transitional zone.

The Whitefish Planning Board voted to recommend the WB-T zoning ordinance on January 20. Council addressed the item in February, postponed it to March 7 then moved it yet again to a work session later in March. Another work session was held on April 4 to discuss transitional zoning and at the council’s latest regular meeting on May 2, it was postponed indefinitely.

If the zoning change does not happen, properties wishing to annex into the city would have to use the current city zoning options available. Those properties that do not choose to annex would continue to be governed by Flathead County zoning standards.

Whitefish City Planning Director Dave Taylor told council that light assembly, professional offices and residential are the main uses listed as permitted uses in the latest revision. He added that multi-family residences up to 18 units are permitted while developments with more than 18 units require a conditional use permit and the footprint for new businesses was reduced from 10,000 square feet to 7,500 square feet.

According to the staff report, the recently adopted Highway 93 South Corridor Plan calls for the creation of a highway transitional zoning district for the area south of Montana 40 to ensure properties at the entrance to Whitefish are developed in a manner consistent with the community’s vision.

“We adopted this as part of our growth policy,” Taylor said. “We have a future land use map that’s been adopted that calls for this transition district over this area so anything else that isn’t consistent with that is going to be inconsistent with our adopted growth policy.”

During the public hearing on May 2, Mayre Flowers from Citizens for a Better Flathead spoke about the possibility of having residential along the highway and cited Silverbrook Estates, a housing development on Highway 93 north of Kalispell, as a good example.

“Housing should be the primary goal,” Flowers said.

The only other public comment came from Nathan Dugan who was opposed to the idea of a Silverbrook-type model because having housing so far from the city center is not compatible with the city’s climate action plan.

Councilor Steve Qunell moved to postpone the ordinance indefinitely and Councilor Ben Davis seconded the motion, although he said he felt ‘iffy’ about it.

Councilor Qunell said he agreed with Dugan that large housing projects go against the climate action plan because people will have to drive into town. He added that he drives that stretch of highway every day and finds it hazardous, stating that more housing in the area south of Montana 40 would make driving more hazardous.

“We need a vision and a way to enact that vision because it is the corridor entrance to our town,” Qunell said. “We don’t have any control over it right now.”