Whitefish approves River Trail agreement

Whitefish City Council voted unanimously Sept. 16 to approve an agreement with a developer to reimburse the city for a section of trail.  

Whitefish City Attorney Angela Jacobs recapped the saga of the bike/pedestrian River Trail connection from the north edge of the underpass to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe loop trail. 

The city began working to establish this section of trail in the early 1980s when an easement was granted for the trail. In 2021, a conditional use permit to develop land north of the Riverbend Condo Association property was approved. One of the conditions was that the developer, Miles Whitefish Investment, build the section of trail that crosses the property. 

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks refused to grant a 310 permit to the developer. Unable to meet his permit condition of approval, he could not sell any condo units. 

The state agency suggested the city apply for a 124 permit to construct the trail through the Miles Whitefish Investment property and the Riverbend section of the trail as one project. 

The city and the developer reached an agreement whereby Miles Whitefish Investment will reimburse the city the amount of the bid for construction of the trail, about $204,000. 

“They will pay the city $20,000 within 10 days of the sale of the first nine units and $24,000 ten days after the sale of the last unit,” said Jacobs. “If it’s not paid in full by the time we are ready to actually construct the trail, then they’re just going to pay us the remainder.” 

Councilor Ben Davis moved to approve the agreement and added that the agreement will be filed on title to the property going forward. The council voted unanimously to approve the agreement. 

THE CITY’S new compensation philosophy was adopted unanimously after the council spent time reviewing the document with Jim Kerins with CMS Consulting at a work session last week. The document will guide the city’s employee compensation plan. 

Seven elements of the compensation philosophy are wages, benefits, professional development, incentives, cost efficiency, compliance and transparency. According to the draft, the goal of the city’s compensation plan is to provide the best value to the taxpayers while ensuring city employees are paid appropriately. 

“I don’t know how much discussion we need. [We’ve] gone through it a lot in our workshop and word smithed it,” Councilor Andy Feury said before moving to adopt the compensation philosophy. 

THE COUNCIL voted to approve an expedited annexation/rezone application for a portion of property on Railway Street amounting to about a tenth of an acre. The land was rezoned from county industrial to the equivalent, the city industrial zone. 

Whitefish City Planner David Taylor said the island of private property near the bike path and BNSF’s roundhouse landing. There was no public comment and the vote was unanimous 

Mayor John Muhlfeld was not in attendance and Councilor Guiseppe Caltabiano attended virtually until the audio failed.