Big Mountain master plan passes

By LYNNETTE HINTZE

The Daily Inter Lake

It was a tough sell, but Winter Sports Inc. mustered a green light from the Whitefish City Council on Monday for a new Big Mountain master plan.

Preliminary votes favored the master plan and zoning for Winter Sports' acreage; final votes will be taken within the next month.

When approved, the plan and accompanying zoning will become a neighborhood plan amendment of the Whitefish growth policy now being drafted.

The new Big Mountain plan encompasses 1,073 acres and establishes land-use designations that replace the existing resort-commercial and timberland designations. Properties will be rezoned with either Big Mountain village or resort-residential designations.

Winter Sports, the corporation that operates the Whitefish ski resort, has spent the past several months refining its 1992 master plan through a series of meetings with the public, homeowners associations, the Whitefish Chamber of Commerce and various civic organizations.

Water quality was the biggest quagmire for council members as they stepped their way through details of the new plan.

"Where I get continually hung up is whether a development of this magnitude is applicable," council member John Muhlfeld said. "Can this drainage support a development of this scale?"

Muhlfeld pointed to a lack of erosion control on First Creek and said that Second Creek, the city's water supply, could be jeopardized by development at the resort.

Winter Sports has scaled back proposed development from earlier plans, however.

Hines, the international resort corporation that partnered with Winter Sports for a few years and proposed a $300 million resort makeover, ended its relationship with the resort a couple of years ago.

The new master plan is nowhere near as grandiose as the one Hines envisioned, Winter Sports President and Chief Executive Officer Fred Jones noted throughout earlier public meetings.

Water quality is addressed in the plan, stipulating that adequate setbacks from streams and wetlands be established. It also asks Winter Sports to develop a master stormwater plan for the buildout of the entire Big Mountain holdings.

The council added a stronger amendment, stipulating that before the city would accept drainage plans for future residential or commercial development at the resort, a stormwater master plan must be approved.

A secondary access road between Whitefish and the resort was another sticking point. A route from the resort through Iron Horse is proposed, but Whitefish fire Chief Dave Sipe said the existing road wouldn't support "a flood of traffic" in a wildfire evacuation.

The council voted to require a two-way emergency access route that meets the design standards of local, state and federal emergency-service providers.

Council members nitpicked the plan's lack of specifics on affordable housing until a frustrated Jones reminded the council that neighborhood plans are intended to be broad conceptual documents of planned growth.

"This is a concept plan, and you're asking for details," Jones said. "Until we know that you like this plan we're spinning our wheels."

Jones promised that the council would have opportunities to impose regulations as specific projects are proposed.

"You're going to get a lot of whacks at us," he said.

Jones said Winter Sports is looking at ways to include work-force housing in new development and plans to designate areas in which more than 100 affordable units could be located. Converting the Hibernation House to work-force housing is one option.

Council member Nick Palmer, who crusaded for compromise throughout the meeting, suggested Winter Sports provide a detailed housing plan when it asks for approval of its first project under the new master plan. The council opted not to require a housing plan right now.

THE ONLY opposition from the audience during the public hearing came from Wayne Womack, who owns business and property interests on Big Mountain.

"In many ways this is by far the best [Big Mountain] master plan I've seen, and I've seen five," Womack said.

He criticized the proposed zoning, however, maintaining the new resort-residential zoning designation could put property owners with commercial interests out of business.

Winter Sports has pulled Subdivision No. 1, an older development with some commercial businesses, out of the master plan for further review and a zoning recommendation. Planning Director Bob Horne said areas around that subdivision also would be studied for potential zone changes.

The new resort-residential zoning does allow condominium hotels.

As the council considered what could have been a split vote on the master plan, Palmer made a final plea for approval.

"By approving this now we can ease the burden on everyone - including us," he said.

The plan passed 4-2, with Muhlfeld and Velvet Phillips-Sullivan voting against it. Zoning was approved 5-1, with Phillips-Sullivan in opposition; a move to table the zoning failed on a 3-3 vote. The council's tie-breaker, Mayor Andy Feury, was absent.

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