Policy draft sets aside open-space reserves

Full draft to be finished by April

The Daily Inter Lake

Designated reserves of open space close to the city are proposed in a preliminary draft of the Whitefish Growth Policy and could be a hot-button issue for developers.

"Developers don't want the reserves. They want to develop them," Bob Horne, Whitefish planning director, told the City Council at a work session Tuesday. "Their pitch is, 'You tell us how you want it developed and we'll do it that way.'"

The council got its first look at the natural-resources, land-use and economic-development portions of the draft. A full preliminary draft of the growth policy should be completed by the third week in April, but in the meantime the council will review elements of the plan as they're finished.

Yet to be completed are policies and recommendations for housing, community facilities, transportation and intergovernmental coordination strategies.

Horne said a preliminary public review draft will be released later this month and will be available then on both the growth policy and city Web sites. Copies also will be placed in the library and at City Hall.

"We would also like to hold an event of some kind for people to come out, review the plan and maps and talk with us," Horne said. "We want to be accessible."

When the draft is finished, it will go the Planning Board and then to the City Council for further study and public hearings.

A PRELIMINARY land-use map sets aside "planned reserves" of rural land along Karrow Avenue and Monegan Road to satisfy residents' desires to keep those tracts open and free of intense development. Proposed land use is based on numerous neighborhood "visioning" sessions conducted last year to gauge where residents think new growth should occur.

Although residents said they don't want to set population or geographic limits on growth, they want rural land preserved. No clear consensus emerged about what neighborhoods should be targeted for growth, but moderate consensus existed for infill development, Horne said.

Whitefish currently has 1,200 residential units with some level of approval that include all types - from Iron Horse homes to small condominiums - and has the potential for another 1,200 units.

Figuring the current construction rate of 200 units a year, "we have 12 years' worth of development out there," Horne said. "So it didn't seem responsible to designate a lot of land for urban and suburban development."

Using the "planned reserve" concept, nearby rural lands could keep the land-use designations from the 1996 master plan, but would be saved until at least 50 percent of the entitled and potential development is reached. It "keeps the community growing in an efficient and logical manner by preventing leap-frogging," according to the draft.

The Karrow Avenue and Monegan Road corridors have been considered in past development projects that met with stiff opposition from neighbors. Developers have argued that those areas are the next logical tracts for development as Whitefish grows.

The draft calls for facilities and services upgraded to take the impact as it occurs. "Concurrency" - putting infrastructure in place before new development could come online - was a topic at several neighborhood meetings.

Residents want Whitefish's character and small-town feel preserved, the draft stated. They dislike high-density housing and pointed specifically to Monterra and The Views as developments that are too dense. A mix of housing types would be preferable, they said.

One of the draft recommendations is to explore "growth metering," limiting the rate at which permits are issued, and other means to control the rate and pace of growth.

Other recommendations include reviewing all zoning-district designations for conformance with the new growth policy. The city would initiate rezonings in order to bring zoning into compliance.

Council member Velvet Phillips-Sullivan noted that discrepancies between the 1996 master plan and zoning have created problems for the city. Horne acknowledged the dilemma.

"Right now there's a lot of conflict between what developers do and what neighbors want, because they're developing [the property] as it's zoned," Horne said.

When the new growth policy and accompanying zoning is in place, developers will be able to ask the city for amendments to the plan. The city has had an unofficial moratorium on zone changes since it began drafting the new plan.

THE NATURAL-resources segment outlines a number of issues facing Whitefish:

. Lakeshore protection standards alone are not enough to safeguard water quality of Whitefish-area lakes.

. Zoning regulations contain no protection standards for environmentally sensitive areas.

. In spite of many previous studies of Whitefish Lake, there is no comprehensive baseline water quality data with which to monitor pollutants and focus cleanup and regulatory programs.

. Several Whitefish-area streams are listed as impaired by the state and soon face new Total Maximum Daily Load standards.

. Federal regulations won't protect all important wetlands in the Whitefish area.

. There's no comprehensive approach to wetland protection.

Recommendations call for developing a comprehensive critical-area ordinance that sets standards for land use near wetlands, streams, lakes, steep slopes, heavily forested areas and critical wildlife habitat. A proposed stormwater law currently under consideration addresses many of those issues.

Economic development recommendations include the creation of a business incubator for technical and logistic support to new businesses and the creation of partnerships to recruit clean, community-compatible industries to Whitefish. The draft also recommends researching regulatory amendments to discourage of prohibit chain stores and businesses from locating in the downtown area.

A 14-member steering committee is assisting city officials in writing the growth policy. The committee meets from 4 to 6 p.m. the second and fourth Wednesday of each month. Call the Whitefish Planning and Building Department at 863-2410 for meeting locations.

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