Whitefish City Council considers a variety of items at latest meeting

The city has been awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to examine the safety of railroad crossings in town.

“The city, with BNSF, applied for a Railroad Crossing Elimination grant to study our three at-grade crossings and the viaduct,” Whitefish City Manager Dana Smith said. “We’re excited for that project to proceed.”

The city, in partnership with BNSF, was awarded $400,000. The city’s contribution will be $25,000 and BNSF will contribute $75,000.

“The intention is to eliminate at-grade crossings so this could potentially add an overpass or underpass at… one of the three at-grade crossings at East Second, at Birch Point or at State Park Road, or it could result in an additional overpass within the city limits,” said Whitefish Public Works Director Craig Workman. “It’s exciting.”

A BIT OF HOUSEKEEPING was necessary to bring the city’s landscaping code into alignment with new state legislation. The new code was approved on the first reading at the Whitefish City Council’s regular meeting on May 15, but was taken off the consent agenda for further discussion last week.

The reworked landscaping code consolidated all landscaping code in one place and it was made more user-friendly, according to city staff.

One change was that, while single-family homes are exempt from being required to submit a landscaping plan, duplexes were not. Reconsideration of the new code was necessary after the state passed a new law.

“You cannot treat duplexes differently than you treat single-family residences, and if we’re not requiring landscaping plans for single-family residences, we probably should not be requiring them for duplexes,” Whitefish City Attorney Angela Jacobs said.

Councilor Ben Davis said he thinks the landscaping code applies best to large development projects and the cost benefit is not there for smaller projects.

“To create a full landscaping plan to build one duplex or one single family home is burdensome and it costs a lot of money,” Councilor Steve Qunell added. “Duplexes are probably our most affordable, ownership housing product that we can build in the city right now so that's the reason why I would like us to exempt duplexes.”

There was discussion about also exempting triplexes from the landscaping requirement but when it came to the vote, it failed to pass.

Council voted 5-1, with Councilor Giuseppe Caltabiano in opposition, to adopt the code on a second reading with duplexes exempted along with single-family homes.

THE COUNCIL adopted the new Annexation Policy with a unanimous vote. This item also had no public comments and very little discussion among the council members.

The Annexation Policy is now a standalone plan, whereas it was previously contained in the Extension of Services Plan. The council had discussed the new policy and reviewed the plan at two work sessions.

The document includes a purpose statement, evaluation criteria and the process for zoning upon annexation which the recently updated city code allows.

WHITEFISH FIRE Chief Joe Page is planning to retire on July 5. In the meantime, Travis Tveidt has stepped into the role of acting fire chief.

The council’s agenda included a request to approve the purchase of a rescue airboat for the fire department, but Tveidt asked for that request to be denied.

“This boat is not what we spec’d out initially… we’d like to bring it back to the drawing board,” Tveidt said. “We would like to make a recommendation that you do not award this contract.”

The fire department’s budget has appropriated $100,000 for the craft with portions of that funding coming from a BNSF grant of $25,000 and a $10,000 grant from the Whitefish Community Foundation.

Tveidt said they got an extension on the grant from BNSF and that it will be available for as long as the department needs.

The department's previous boat was over 30 years old and was taken out of service due to numerous air leaks and the newer, 2006 Hovercraft is operable but lacks space for equipment and/or patients.

THERE WAS no public comment and very little discussion about a request to amend a previously approved planned unit development (PUD) for the 95 Karrow project.

The changes involve a couple setbacks and lot coverages on some of the lots. The request was for a five-foot structural setback and zero-foot lot line setback on some awnings and roofs. The developer would also like to have 60% lot coverage on five lots and 80% on one other lot. All else remains the same.

This is one of several amendments to the mixed-use PUD. Whitefish City Planner Wendy Compton-Ring said the zoning deviations are in keeping with the more urban flavor of the project.

“If math serves me, this will be number four and frankly, this is intentional,” Casey Malmquist, the project’s developer said. “This is not your typical PUD or subdivision… I’ve taken a very curated approach to this. We’re actually working with individual people on these lots for what they might develop in the future.”

He said this method of development means they have more detailed information and he is asking for some design latitude.

The council voted unanimously to approve the amendments.