'Doughnut' fix is top goal for Whitefish

The Daily Inter Lake

The Whitefish City Council tonight will adopt a list of 18 goals for the coming year, and resolving the governance issue in the two-mile planning "doughnut" heads the list.

Controversy has been bubbling in recent months over city control in the doughnut area where residents have no say in city government.

A new emergency-services center and new City Hall are other priorities for the council. The city is expected to move forward with both projects this year to the point of finalizing contract and bidding documents for both buildings.

Other goals are affordable housing, reviewing and updating planning regulations to support the new growth policy and working with legislators to minimize the impact of property-tax reappraisals.

The council has three public hearings on the agenda tonight, including a resolution to establish fees for enforcement of the newly adopted critical-areas ordinance.

The other two hearings deal with amendments to zoning regulations to create a business service district and to allow conditional zoning.

Light-emitting diode or LED billboards will be discussed, with the council considering a resolution to support the Montana Transportation Commission's efforts to prohibit such signs.

The commission has proposed new regulations that prohibit LED billboards, a new type of sign that has the capability of changing the sign's message every eight seconds or so. LED billboards are not defined in state regulations and therefore aren't specifically prohibited, although Whitefish sign laws already prohibit such signs.

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