Whitefish votes tonight on planning-office withdrawal

The Daily Inter Lake

The Whitefish City Council begins the new year with a final vote on the proposal to withdraw from the Tri-City Planning Office.

Last month the council agreed to move forward with City Manager Gary Marks' plan to pull out of the Tri-City office and create its own planning office.

If approved, the move will shut down the Tri-City Planning Office and force Kalispell and Columbia Falls to restructure their own planning services.

In his manager's report, Marks noted he's gotten a fair amount of public input about the proposal.

"Some have argued that such withdrawal will be a step backward for regional planning in Flathead County," Marks said. "To the contrary, the step backward took place years ago. It is a simple fact that regional planning has not existed in the Flathead for many years. A Whitefish withdrawal does not change this fact."

Marks also maintained that no regional planning has been accomplished by the three cities in the three years the Tri-City office has existed.

"The truth is that each city has its own master plan and its own zoning regulations designed to address the unique needs and issues of their respective communities," he said.

A regional planning task force proposed by County Commissioner Gary Hall is a good idea and an opportunity for cooperation, Marks said, but added that Whitefish needs its own in-house planning office given "a continuing flood of development applications."

The withdrawal would become effective July 1.

In other business, the council will conduct two public hearings dealing with a request from Janet Morrow to allow a retreat center at 320 Haugen Heights Road.

The first hearing deals with a zoning-regulation amendment to allow retreat centers as conditional uses in county residential zones. The second hearing focuses on Morrow's requested conditional-use permit.

A third public hearing is planned to consider created a special improvement district on JP Road to pay for road improvements.

The meeting begins at 7:10 p.m. Monday at Whitefish City Hall.