First Whitefish growth-policy meeting set for Jan.11

The Daily Inter Lake

Whitefish begins updating its growth policy when the Steering Committee holds its first meeting at 4 p.m. Jan. 11.

The city is under an Oct. 1 deadline to complete the growth policy.

The steering committee is a 14-member group of Whitefish area residents who will work with Planning and Building Department staff to update the Whitefish City-County Master Plan to a growth policy that is compliant with state law. When it is adopted, the growth policy will guide growth and development in and around Whitefish.

The first meeting will be an organizational session.

"We'll get the group together, have them introduce themselves and talk a little bit about why they want to serve on the committee and why the growth policy is important to them," planning director Bob Horne said.

Group members also will discuss how they wish to organize, meeting times and days, how meetings are to be conducted, what Montana law says about the growth policy and how public comments will be handled at work meetings. Committee members will discuss the various elements that comprise the growth policy, the format and level of specificity in the document itself and how the growth policy guides decision-making, Horne said.

The first meeting will be held in the main conference room at the Planning and Building Department, 1005 C. Baker Ave., but subsequent meetings likely will be held elsewhere if space needs or logistics dictate.

All of the meetings are open to the public. How the committee will handle impromptu public input has not been determined.

"There will be ample opportunity for public involvement. But if it dominates every work session, not much work is going to get done," Horne said. "That may not even become a problem, but we need to have a game plan in case it does."

According to current Montana law, the growth policy must be adopted by Oct. 1. If that deadline is not met, the city will be prohibited from amending its 1996 master plan and from major changes to its zoning code and map until the growth policy is complete.