Council reviews upcoming projects on Armory Road, East 6th Street

The developer behind a proposed 77-lot subdivision on Flathead Avenue pulled its three items from the agenda for the Whitefish City Council meeting last week, leaving no public hearings, but a handful of other considerations were addressed.

Whitefish Public Works Director Craig Workman sought direction for the next resort tax roadway project. The council voted unanimously to begin the design phase for two projects: Armory Road and East Sixth Street.

Major Street Network projects are divided into three categories: mill and overlay, roadway extensions and reconstruction projects. Currently, only reconstruction projects can be considered for resort tax funding and there are eight of them on the list. 

“We, currently, are not allowed to use resort tax dollars on the mill and overlay streets or any of the other road projects that don’t involve full reconstruction,” Workman said. “That will change in February of 2025 … based on the last election, the resort tax allocation will change giving us more flexibility to use resort tax dollars.”

The estimated cost for the Armory Road reconstruction project is $6.4 million and the estimated cost for East Sixth Street is $2.2 million.

Armory Road had been proposed as next in line after Karrow Avenue, which is scheduled to be completed later this year. The Resort Tax Monitoring Committee reviewed roadway projects recently and were interested in obtaining engineering for both the Armory Road and East Sixth Street projects.

Councilor Ben Davis asked why the Sixth Street project might be a priority over the Armory project.

“It mostly pertains to school traffic,” Workman said. “Pedestrian activity during school drop off and pick up, lack of sidewalks, dilapidated road surface and just a general interest in trying to keep projects in the Avenues a priority, being some of the oldest streets that we have in town.”

The council voted unanimously to proceed with preliminary engineering for both projects and for  Councilor Andy Feury to serve on the selection panel for the projects, along with Workman and Karin Hilding.

THE COUNCIL heard from Marissa Getts, associate executive director of the Whitefish Housing Authority, regarding the Depot Park Townhomes project. Amendments to the developer agreement were made, discussed and approved with a unanimous vote.

At an earlier work session, the Housing Authority presented a table to the council showing price points, the number of units in each, and the targeted area median income for each. Getts asked for more flexibility with the pricing.

“There is strong potential to get additional funds to subsidize some of [the price points] down,” Getts said. “I’d love to not be locked into those price points.”

She added that some flexibility with the price points could be helpful for problem solving after applications are received.

The council voted to approve a new table showing six units offered at $300,00-$349,999, seven units at $350-$399,999 and nine units at $400,000-$425,000.

Getts also requested a few exemptions related to the subdivision improvement agreement that she said would save the Housing Authority money on construction costs.

“We are asking if we can build our internal sidewalks after we have built our foundations for our homes,” Getts said. “That would save us, probably about $50,000.”

She also asked to pave the parking lot and install landscaping after the foundations are built. She said delaying the parking lot would also save about $50,000.

Whitefish City Manager Dana Smith cautioned against setting precedent by allowing these exemptions.

“There are some risks that we run with setting these types of precedents knowing that we have other developments where they have really tight lots, too,” Smith said.

Usually, Workman explained, a developer installs all the infrastructure, the water, sewer and the streets, gets the final plat and then begins to sell the lots.

“This is clearly a different type of subdivision,” Workman said. “We know the developer … is planning to do all the foundations first, so I don’t necessarily have an issue with the sidewalk request.”

He added that not paving the parking lot would likely present an erosion problem “nightmare” and suggested building the parking lot and putting the first lift of asphalt down.

“This seems like a very reasonable request to me,” Davis said. “If this site plan was built as condominiums instead of a subdivision … that’s exactly how it would be done.”

The council voted unanimously to approve the subdivision amendments, allowing sidewalks and landscaping to be installed later and the parking lot built as Workman suggested.

The initial amendments to the developers agreement included changing the area median income range to between 100% and 150%. Additionally,  the Whitefish Housing Authority will create and adopt policies to manage the sale of the units. Those policies will prioritize qualified buyers with the lowest area median income. 

The term of the agreement was also extended for another 3-year term.

The vote to approve the initial amendments to the developers agreement was 5-1 in favor, with Councilor Giuseppe Caltabiano voting in opposition.

“I do believe that this project has been mismanaged up to a certain point,” Caltabiano said. “I do believe there should be consideration to go back to square one, bite the bullet, burn the money we burned and redesign the project with many more units.” 

He said the initial plan had 34 units and added that the city could better serve the working community with higher density on this piece of land.