Whitefish to refigure building, plan fees

The Daily Inter Lake

The Whitefish City Council will hold a public hearing tonight to re-adopt the city's planning and fire-prevention fees because the state doesn't like the way they're being calculated.

The fees aren't increasing; they simply will be figured a different way, City Manager Gary Marks said.

The city has been reducing its building permit fee to offset the other fees, but the Montana Building Codes Division wants each fee to be calculated independently, Marks said. Under the revised method, each fee will be calculated as a percentage of a base fee.

During other public hearings, the council will consider a conditional-use permit for a bar/lounge at The Loft, 124 Central Ave., and a preliminary plat for Lystne Estates, two single-family sublots on Karrow Avenue.

Marks has a full slate of business for the council, including his presentation of parking project options for city property at Spokane Avenue and Second Street and a report on City Hall and emergency-services facilities planning efforts.

The council will consider a resolution supporting the E911 dispatch consolidation.

Another proposed resolution would allow the city to adopt a cash-in-lieu-of-parkland policy that would divide the city into three districts. Cash-in-lieu payments for new development would be put into their appropriate districts to assure the money is used for projects close to the development.

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