Karrow Avenue projects denied

Two projects that would open the door to growth in the Karrow Avenue corridor were turned down Thursday by the Whitefish City-County Planning Board.

Planners voted 5-3 to deny the 10-lot Karrow Glen subdivision planned on roughly five acres on the southeast corner of Karrow Avenue and Seventh Street.

The property is zoned for single-family development and no variances were requested, but neighbors turned out in force to argue that such a development would infringe on the pastoral setting of the neighborhood. Traffic was another concern.

Those were the same concerns neighbors had three years ago when the 57-lot Beaver Parks Estates subdivision was turned down by the council. That project also met the minimum requirements of Whitefish zoning and subdivision regulations. At that time neighbors said they intended to draft a neighborhood plan for the Karrow Avenue area.

"They said they had been promised a neighborhood plan was going to be done," senior planner Wendy Compton-Ring said.

However, an e-mail sent to the planning department last week from one Karrow area resident, indicating the neighborhood plan was still in the works, was a surprise to the planning department.

"It was the first we'd heard of a neighborhood plan for that area," she said.

The City Council has the final say on Karrow Glen at its Feb. 21 meeting.

The planning board also denied Ann Snyder's request to change the zoning on 9.7 acres along Karrow Avenue from agricultural (with a 15-acre minimum lot size) to country residential, which has a 2.5-acre minimum lot size.

Once again, Karrow folks argued the zone change wouldn't fit the character of the neighborhood. The planning board decided a zone change would be premature, given the planning effort under way to draft a new growth policy for Whitefish this year.

Karrow Avenue, a transition area between urban and rural land on the southern fringe of Whitefish, will be under the microscope as the steering committee for the new growth policy figures out which areas should accommodate new residential growth in the resort town.

The avenue runs south from U.S. 93 North and eventually turns into Blanchard Lake Road, connecting with U.S. 93 South. It has been identified by the state as one of the alternative routes for a Whitefish bypass.

In other business Thursday, the planning board:

-Denied a zone change from suburban to one-family residential to accommodate Rob Pero's proposed 12-lot Mountain Pines Phase 3 development. City planner Sean Conrad said the board discussed where to draw the line on dense development in that area north of Lion Mountain Road and west of Meadowlark Lane. The board decided the zone change wasn't compatible with the land use described in the current master plan.

-Approved the four-lot Yellow Pine Estates subdivision off East Lakeshore Drive.

-OK'd the 21-lot Great Northern Heights Phase 3 subdivision behind Western Building Center.

-Appointed Dennis Bee as president of the board. He replaces Nick Palmer, who was elected to the City Council. Martin McGrew will serve as vice president. Former board member Dan Hendrick was appointed to the board.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com